Unspeakable
by Synaps
Summary: One of the Fentons' magical experiments causes them to be kicked out of the United States, but at least the groundbreaking nature of their work means the older Fentons are able to quickly find new jobs at the British Ministry of Magic. As such, Danny is sent to Hogwarts, but there is more to the exile and the experiment that caused it than he knows.
1. Moving In

**AN:** This takes place during _Order of the Phoenix_. It's pretty much completely AU for _Danny Phantom_ , what with the ghost portal not being the standard ghost portal and all, so expect that time-line to be a bit... eccentric. I'm generally trying to keep ghosts closer to HP canon than DP.

 **Edited version:** I decided to go back to this fic and expand scenes where possible, since the chapters (especially in the beginning) are so short. While at it, I added some filler scenes where Danny gets to interact with _Harry Potter_ characters that I missed the first time around. Also, I fixed all spelling errors I came across. FFnet has a nasty habit of removing spaces.

* * *

 **Moving In**

Danny Fenton was _not_ sulking, _thank you very much_.

But if he _had_ been, he would have had good reason to.

Their brooms dropped down in front of an old wooden building. Danny got off, feeling a bit sore, and looked over at the area with disdain. The house was almost organic, like it had grown out of the earth together with the surrounding oak trees. Some time long ago, it might have been painted yellow. The whole thing was very wizard, and very much _not_ the red bricks and city life of FentonWorks.

He half expected it to start raining, to match his mood. It _was_ England, after all. Instead, bright sunshine illuminated overgrown rose bushes.

Danny picked up his duffel bag and walked towards the house. His parents were close at his heels, chatting excitedly. He tuned them out. For _them_ this might be some _exciting adventure_ , but Danny wasn't convinced. (Even if it was nice to see his parents finally get the recognition they deserved.)

Even Jazz was smiling about something, which only made Danny want to scowl at her.

"Cheer up, little brother. We might as well make the best of the situation."

 _'Traitor.'_

"Easy for you to say, you're not getting shipped off to _boarding school._ " He raised his voice slightly at the end, so that his parents would overhear.

They, probably wisely, declined to comment. They had argued about the same thing since they'd decided to move, and nothing good would come from continuing.

"I still don't see why I couldn't just stay with Tucker. His parents would have allowed it."

"Danny!" His mother's voice was firm. "We're a family, we stay together."

Danny bit back a comment about how Tucker's family being muggles played into things, because his mother wasn't dragging him to England because of racism. (Besides, his dad was muggleborn.) Still, the thought to say something about it occurred to him, if only because he knew it would get their attention.

"I'd believe you, if you weren't sending me off to boarding school."

He was, once again, ignored.

The inside of the house appeared less run down than the outside. Maybe the previous owner simply hadn't been into gardening.

His parents wasted no time in unpacking, removing the shrinking spells from the furniture stuffed into their bags. Danny slumped down gratefully in the sofa, even though he'd done nothing _but_ sit down the entire day. Flying across the Atlantic on a broom wasn't exactly relaxing. Especially since they'd gotten lost when they finally arrived in Europe. Turns out, you get to Ireland _before_ you get to England. Who would have thought? (Not his dad, apparently. The man was smart enough when he wanted to be, but apparently geography had never interested him.)

Somewhere behind him, his mother was fuzzing over the fireplace. Likely trying to connect it properly it to the Floo Network.

"I'm gonna tell Tuck we finally arrived."

"You do that, sweetie, but don't bother Spooky. I don't think he has it in him to fly across the Atlantic again so soon."

Danny nodded. The family's barn owl was old and cranky. Any excuse to not go near him was a good one.

Instead, he pulled out the muggle cell phone Tucker had forced on him.

Danny stared at the device. Tucker _had_ explained how it worked. There was... something about pressing the buttons? Yes, definitely. He needed to press the buttons in the right order. Or something.

Muggle technology was weird.

Danny pressed a button, deciding which one randomly. The small screen plastic device started to glow. That was... good? He vaguely remembered it doing that when Tucker had shown him how it worked.

Tucker would tease him _so much_ if he could see Danny right now.

After a few tries, he discovered that Tucker's name was already in the phone. Making the thing choose that option, Danny pulled it to his ear and waited.

"Tucker? It's Danny."

" _Dude, I know it's you. And you sound weird, so I think you're holding your phone upside-down."_

Danny quickly turned the device around, fighting back a blush. "Better?"

" _Much."_ There were hints of a smug laugh in the voice. _"So, how's it going?"_

"We're here. _Finally._ I'm so sick of flying."

" _I thought you loved flying."_

"I do." Danny sighed, settling down further in the couch. "But there's a difference between playing Quidditch and crossing an ocean. I _knew_ I should have forced mom and dad to get a portkey. How's things back in Amity?"

Tucker paused. _"I think things are going back to normal. Everyone's been on edge since... you know..."_

Danny felt his mood sour. Things were only going back to "normal" because the Fentons had left.

" _They dropped those charges against Sam."_ Tucker's voice was carefully calm.

"Good." Danny grumbled. "They had nothing to go on."

" _Other than general paranoia and that whole Dark Arts obsession the whole town had."_

"They shouldn't have accused her to begin with."

" _Danny, practically_ everyone and their dog _was accused of practising Dark Arts. It's not because she's your friend."_

"It wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for..."

" _I know, but you shouldn't beat yourself up about it._ Sam _doesn't blame you."_

Danny mumbled something incoherent, not sure himself of what he was trying to say.

" _How's the new house."_

"Fine, I guess."

" _So you hate it?"_

"...Yeah." Danny sighed, again. It was becoming a habit. "Well, at least nobody else is going to move into FentonWorks while we're gone."

" _Dude, there were talks about blowing the place up rather than lifting quarantine."_ Tucker's voice was a horrified whisper.

Danny smirked. "That's a _terrible_ idea. The wards will go haywire." It felt nice to allow himself to be vindictive about it. "Take lots of pictures of it, for me?"

" _Sure."_ Tucker laughed and Danny felt his spirits rise ever so slightly. At least he still had his best friend, even if they were on different sides of the planet.

* * *

Danny felt better after talking to Tucker, but his good mood quickly faded. Being able to call his best friend was hardly comparable to going over to his house after dinner. Even with wizarding transportation, he would need to Floo to London, and then to the international Floo in New York, before going to Amity Park. The journey across the ocean meant one hour of falling through fireplaces and having his mouth filled with soot. After that he'd still need to go through customs.

No, the Foley residence was firmly out of his reach at the moment.

He distracted himself by exploring their new house, making sure to grumble loudly whenever his parents were around.

Their old furniture were quickly filling the space, a twisted mockery of their old home. Danny's dad's needlework looked wrong hanging on a wooden wall. The words _'home, sweet home'_ were an insult.

Jazz had unpacked her books before unpacking her bookshelves, making her room an unorganized mess. She frowned at the piles of literature like they were to blame, rather than her own enthusiasm. Danny left her to it.

He wandered aimlessly, since he didn't want to talk to his parents about where they were planning on putting stuff.

Walking away from Jazz, he found that the door facing her room housed his parents' bed. There were two more doors in the corridor, one of which was a bathroom.

The other had a small hand painted sign that Danny had made when he was five. The oddly shaped letters spelled out _'Danny's room'_ , and were surrounded by stars.

Danny's chest constricted, and he felt an impulse to tear it down.

Instead, he turned the doorknob and entered.

Despite the sign, the room was bare. Hardwood floors and light blue walls greeted him. There was a window facing the forest behind the house, but he could also see down the hill to the nearest town. He wasn't sure of whether there was much of a wizard community there, or whether it was strictly muggle. His parents had mentioned that it was a small town, with one bakery and one pub, but no library. Jazz had disapproved.

There was a knock on Danny's open door.

"Danny, sweetie." His mom smiled at him. "Want to unpack?"

"Sure."

Unlike his genius of a sister, Danny remembered to place his bookshelf by the wall before unpacking his books.

Of course, he also forgot to put his rug on the floor before covering said floor with furniture, so it wasn't like he was that much better.

* * *

 **AN:** I'll explain exactly _why_ the Fentons moved to England in a later chapter, so don't worry if you're confused about it. I've given some hints though, so you might be able to figure it out before that.

Yes, flying across the Atlantic Ocean on broom is ridiculous and should not be attempted even in a setting where brooms can fly. I just figured, what with the way Fenton Family Road-trips usually play out, that it would be how the Fentons decided to do things. I imagine they have a big magical raft that they pulled out at night to sleep on.


	2. Employment

**Employment**

The British Ministry of Magic was quite different from the American government building. Rather than white marble fixtures reminiscent of ancient Greece, the walls and floors were in dark tones. The Fentons hurried to move away from the fireplaces. It would be awkward if the next person that popped out of it walked into them.

Danny did his best to not gawk at the large _golden_ fountain that stood in the middle the hall.

His father had no such qualms, walking around with a big smile on his face.

His mother had no such curiosity, walking straight towards the elevators with all the focused purpose of a laser beam. (Even though, being a pureblood witch, she had no idea what a laser was. Danny only knew because of Tucker.)

Jazz had opted against joining them, being _busy_ with something she refused to discuss. Danny figured that she was lying and should have just _said_ that she wasn't interested.

Every once in a while the sound of someone apparating was heard, which was rather headache inducing. In the general chaos of the hall, yhe surrounding wizards and witches paid them little attention as they walked to work. Danny was secretly thankful for that. After how things had been in Amity Park the last month, it was nice to be able to blend in with the crowd.

At the edge of the atrium, which they were nearing despite the bustle of people, was a set of big golden gates. The Fentons veered off, approaching a security desk. The wizard behind it was dressed in worn brown robes, that had one been of fine quality. He had bushy blonde hair, and beady eyes. Or maybe that was only because he was eyeing the Fentons with suspicion.

"Hi there, Danny here is visiting and we should-"

"You need a name tag." The wizard gave Danny a small glare, like he had made a mistake to have come so far without one, before readying a weird brass instrument. It somehow looked like a fat rat without a head. The shiny tail was moving under its own volition. "Name and purpose, please." Despite the 'please', his curt tone was nothing less than rude.

"Daniel Fenton. Guest?"

A small silver plaque popped out of it, which Danny hurried to attach to his robe.

"Wand, please."

Danny pulled out his wand from the hidden leather strap on his wrist.

Another brass instrument was used this time, looking for all the world like some sort of scale.

"Twelve inches, thestral hair and yew. Been used one year. Is that correct?"

"Yeah." His old phoenix feather and cypress wand had wilted, without any 'apparent' cause behind it, expelling all magic and refusing to work anymore. Danny suspected he knew _exactly_ why that had happened, but he wasn't about to volunteer that knowledge to the questioning wandmaker that he'd originally bought it from.

The security wizard handed back Danny's wand, not bothering to point out the weird core. Maybe he thought thestral hair was commonly used in wands in the States.

"And you two?"

"We're not visitors." Danny's mother laughed, warm and friendly. "The two of us are going to work here from now on."

The guard nodded, there was a true smile on his face. "I'll see you around then. Which department?"

"The Department of Mysteries, of course!" Danny's father's voice boomed. "We're researchers."

The guard's smile disappeared, but he quickly forced a more strained one to take its place. He looked a little afraid, his gaze locked on the floor and his shoulders rising. Danny's parents didn't seem to notice.

Danny looked at him in dismay. Had their reputation preceded them? What had happened was supposed to be _classified._

Though if that was the case, shouldn't the guard have reacted to Danny's name?

Maybe there was something about the Department of Mysteries, and the people who worked there, that Danny didn't know.

A large hand, courtesy of his father, dropped to Danny's shoulder and he was pulled along towards the elevators before he could voice his concerns.

The elevator was cramped even before they forced their way in. A few wizards, one of which was carrying a glowing purple rock (not a gem, just a rock), grumbled at them. Especially Danny's dad, who took up a bit more space than the average wizard. If the older Fentons noticed the reactions, they didn't show it. Danny found himself pressed against the closed doors. It was a good thing he didn't _need_ to breathe anymore.

The elevator stopped, and a few witches forced their way past the Fentons. Danny sighed, before stepping aside to let them out.

A couple of origami birds flew in, flapping their paper wings over Danny's head. He had to crane his neck to watch them, wondering what the point was. Memos, maybe?

The elevator ride continued, with less and less people occupying the small space. After a few stops it was possible to breathe normally again.

Finally the doors opened and the pleasant voice announced the Department of Mysteries, letting the last people exit. As it was, that meant only the Fenton family.

They were met by dark halls that were nothing like the friendly chaos of the previous floors. The were elegant, sure, but the desolation of them was rather creepy.

While humming the tune to some muggle song Danny didn't recognize, his dad took off down the corridor.

That sort of ruined the spooky mood. Danny let out a breathless, short laugh and followed.

They made their way through the dark passageways, a weird circular room filled with doors, and finally reached their destination.

It was a large chamber, which could use some better lighting. Danny considered _lumos,_ but it really wasn't dark enough to warrant it. Not to mention the whole underage magic thing. Though that was less likely to be an issue in a place as heavily warded as the Department of Mysteries, his mother would probably yell at him. Rather than risking it, Danny happily dropped down on a low stone bench, the likes of which circled the room.

But none of that was _really_ what drew the eye. In the middle of the room, set on a stone dais, was an unsupported archway. It was old, crumbling even, and contained nothing but a worn black curtain. A small breeze played with the fabric, even though there was no actual wind in the closed room. Waves of cold radiated from it.

This Veil was larger than the one his parents had built in the basement of FentonWorks last year. The supporting structure, grey stone worn by time, was nothing like the black and yellow metal his parents had used. Still, the magic coming off it _felt_ the same.

Danny exhaled slowly, a small smile playing on his lips. Tension he hadn't even noticed left him and he found himself more relaxed than he had been in months. He was finally home.

* * *

The day passed lazily, with Danny's parents setting up their equipment around the Veil. Nobody disturbed them, so there probably weren't any other Unspeakables studying the mysteries of death at the time.

Jack and Maddie Fenton were the undisputed experts on the area, so maybe the Ministry thought they'd be enough.

Though the Ministry _knew_ that Danny's parents were the sort of people who built their own Veil in the basement of their house in central Amity Park, so he would have thought they would have someone working with them, to rein them in if needed.

When lunch came around, the three of them decided to check out restaurants in the area. Considering how they hadn't brought any food with them, they had little choice.

They entered the circular room, which spun around them. When it stopped, another door opened and a man joined them. He had pale skin, and moved his long arms and legs like he had never grown fully into his own body.

His sunken eyes, framed by dark circles of perpetual lack of sleep, widened as he noticed Danny. His gaze travelled between Danny's visitor's badge and his parents. "Outsiders aren't allowed here." His voice was a hoarse whisper, like every word hurt.

"Oh, sorry." Danny's dad grinned disarmingly, managing to look like a scolded school boy. "We figured we'd take out son to work with us, just this once."

"Jack Fenton, correct? And Maddie Fenton?"

"Yes, and you are?" Danny's mom stepped forward, placing herself between him and the stranger.

"Saul Croaker, studies on Time." Croaker's eyes narrowed. "Did you not read the nondisclosure agreements?"

"Oh, we haven't actually signed those yet." Danny's mom's smile turned vicious in its mildness. "We wanted to get in bright and early to set up, but we only start working here officially on Monday."

"I see." Croaker's voice turned sour. "In that case, may I recommend for the future that you don't bring in just anybody to the Department?"

"Danny-boy already knows everything about our research!" Danny's dad brought down a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"It's not like I could avoid it, when they worked in our basement." Danny didn't want to bring more attention to himself, but he couldn't stop the sarcastic comment.

"In that case, use a memory charm on him." Croaker directed his order at Danny's mom, seemingly realising that she was the most reasonable of them.

Of course, being reasonable didn't mean willingly wiping the memory on her only son. "I'm sure there's some other way around that. How about we make him part of our team, like an intern?"

"So, Danny-boy, want to work with your old man?" Jack smiled widely and added in an afterthought, "And your mom, too."

 _'Actually, dad, I want to be an astronomer.'_

"Sure, dad."

Croaker looked less than convinced.

"And instead of signing some magical contract, or an Oath that'll take away my magic if I break it, we'll go for something much safer." Danny stopped himself from smirking.

"Oh?" Croaker's voice was flat. "Safe for whom?"

"For the Department, of course. I'm quite willing to take an Unbreakable Vow." Danny put a hand to his chest, to show how honest he was. "Want to oversee it?"

Croaker was a man of small facial expressions, but Danny liked to imagine that he looked mollified. Or maybe even pleased.

What Croaker didn't seem to realise was that the term Unbreakable Vow was a misnomer. Breaking it was possible. You just had to die to do it.

If Croaker had been involved in the studies of Death, he might have understood why Danny suggested it.

Even then, he probably wouldn't have. Some things were so secret, even the Department of Mysteries hadn't been fully informed about it.

Danny's relationship with death was one such secret.


	3. Friends From Work

**Friends From Work**

For Molly Weasley, all sense of the normalcy that they had pretended to retain had disappeared when her family moved away from the Burrow.

Work for the Order was important, but only sought to drive home the point. Everybody she cared about were in danger. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had returned.

As such, it was with no small amount of delight that Molly discovered that their most recent job for the Order, scouting for new members, involved taking her family to eat dinner with the family of someone Arthur had met at work. (That this got them out of number twelve, Grimmauld Place was a bonus.) It was nice and normal, with low risk of death. Just what they needed.

Molly smiled as Ron came downstairs. His hair was a mess, and she swiftly attacked it with a comb and some water. He made distressed noises, but knew better than to try to stop her.

She was humming to herself when Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody entered the room. His uneven footsteps disturbed the rhythm of her song, making her stop with a frown.

Alastor's sour expression further disrupted the happy atmosphere in the kitchen. The man was always scowling, so to somehow seem even _more_ disapproving than usual was quite the feat.

Molly tried to ignore him, she really did, and she would have succeeded if he hadn't started talking.

"This is a bad idea if I've ever heard one."

"I'm not listening to this again."

"You wouldn't have to if you'd just come to your senses. The rumours of the Fentons being practitioners of Dark Magic come from _very_ reliable sources. Why do you think they were kicked out of the States in the first place?"

"Now, Alastor..." Arthur raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Jack Fenton is as far from a Dark Wizard as you can get. He's the most approachable Unspeakable I have ever met. He even took the time to explain rubber ducks to me over lunch."

"That just means he's a good actor."

"If they _were_ Dark they wouldn't have just exiled them."

"In any case," Molly huffed, becoming increasingly annoyed. "We are going. On _Dumbledore's_ _orders._ " She stressed the last two words, hoping against reason that it would be enough to stop the old Auror.

"Just don't give them any information about the Order until we're sure about them."

"Of course not!" Molly glared daggers at Alastor while her husband just shrugged helplessly.

* * *

Ron wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, given Mad-Eye's warnings.

The house looked normal enough, by wizard standards. The weird metal contraption that had been build to the roof sometime after the wooden house was finished was, aside from the choice in material, not _that_ different from some of the additions to the Burrow.

The door-knocker was a shiny silver claw. It looked new and menacing.

Ron's dad didn't hesitate before taking it and banging it against the door. In response, the knocker grabbed onto his hand. He jumped slightly in reaction, but the thing didn't let him go.

In a fluid motion, Ron's mum drew her wand and ushered the rest of the family to stand behind her.

"Please state your name and purpose." The voice coming from the door was lyrical. Ron would have called it beautiful... in any other situation. As it was, he didn't exactly take the time to appreciate it.

"Arthur Weasley and family. We were invited to dinner?"

On the other side of the door, they could hear the heavy footfalls of running.

"Please state today's password."

"I didn't-"

"Incorrect password. Please prepare for your fudge- I mean _doom._ " The silver placket above the knocker pulled back, revealing an ominous shadowed hole. The hole began to glow faintly. Worse, it glowed green. Ron didn't know, but he was willing to bet money that it was the exact shade of the killing curse.

That was even worse than the stuff around Grimmauld Place, which Ron _knew_ was created by Dark wizards.

He promised himself that, if he made it out alive, he'd listen to Mad-Eye's paranoid ramblings from then on out.

Ron could hear someone frantically trying to unlock the door from the inside.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt you!" The shout was clear, even through the door.

Ron seriously doubted it was true.

His mother seemed to be of the same opinion, as she prepared herself to cast a spell to destroy the knocker.

She didn't have time to finish it, however, before the wards reacted.

Arthur, standing in the front, took the blunt of the blast.

Still, the rest of them weren't spared.

Soon, every single member of the Weasley family was covered in green goo.

"What?" Ron exhaled the word, blinking rapidly as his heart slowed down to a normal beat.

"I'm _so_ sorry." The door was pulled open, revealing a dark haired teenager.

Ron was still feeling the adrenaline.

Fred began to laugh, and was soon joined in by George. Ginny giggled lightly.

"That prank-"

"It's not a prank, it's part of dad's security wards. He made them himself. The goo is supposed to trap you without hurting you. It's not dangerous, but it'll harden in a bit. Here, let me help you get out of there." The Fenton boy was looking very pained and embarrassed by the whole situation.

Ron noticed that, despite his assurances, Danny gave the goo a wide berth. (Not that he could blame him, it was sticky and smelled oddly.)

By that point, it seemed Ron's parents had recovered somewhat. His dad was still looking rather pale as he accepted the continued apologies. His mum looked like she'd had a miniature heart attack.

"I'm Danny Fenton, by the way." Danny greeted them, face still crimson.

Danny pulled up a big spray bottle, made of clear glass that displayed a brightly yellow liquid, and started spraying the goo with it. Where yellow met green, the goo turned grey and dried up in huge chunks that fell apart into dust as it hit the ground.

As Danny freed the Weasley family from the goo, Ron gave him a look over. He was skinny, and moved like he expected things to move aside for him, so that he wouldn't have to look out for them himself. Consequently, he tripped over nearly everything. It came across as less Slytherin arrogance and more like Ravenclaw quirkiness.

Ron felt a shiver run down his spine as icy blue eyes found his own. Somehow, they looked _dead._

Danny's hair was as black as Harry's, but nobody would ever mistake the two as Danny's face was much more angular. Danny was also taller than Harry, even if he was still shorter than Ron.

Danny seemed like a nice enough bloke, however. He was able to get the Weasleys free and ushered them inside quickly, all while giving the front door dirty looks.

* * *

 **AN:** This chapter did _not_ want to be written, (I think it was because I left Danny's POV) and it turned out much longer than I'd originally intended. At first, I was planning on ending the chapter at end of the dinner... Then the Fenton Family security wards decided to act like canon!Jack does when somebody rings the doorbell... I guess it wouldn't be the Fentons' house if you could walk inside without getting shoot at with ectoplasmic gunk.


	4. The Dinner

**The Dinner**

After the way it started, dinner could have been an incredibly awkward affair.

Thankfully, Danny's dad had the sort of personality that wouldn't let him be discouraged by such trivialities as scaring the guests half to death by forgetting to give them the password to the wards. (Not that being halfway to death was necessarily a bad thing.)

The dinner room felt smaller than it was, it's not made seat ten people. Danny found himself squeezed between one of the twins (he can't honestly claim to know which one, when he tried to ask they switched in the middle of answering him) and Ron. The youngest Weasley son was giving him weirdly contemplative looks.

Danny had a heavy feeling in his stomach that it's because they knew about Amity Park.

It was ridiculous, it was paranoia talking, it was also undeniably possible. It shouldn't have been, but people liked their gossip... Maybe Ron was just mad about the wards. (He didn't seem angry, but Danny hoped that was the case.)

The rest of the family was nice, especially Mr Weasley. It seemed like Danny's dad was actually capable of making normal friends, which was a pleasant surprise.

With any luck, Mr Weasley wouldn't try to kill anyone before the end of the evening. (Danny's luck was usually rotten, so he mentally readied himself for the seemingly nice family to turn murderous. It was a good thing his parents always were prepared for an attack.)

Jazz was somewhat hard to spot in a room full of red-haired people, but she seemed happy enough.

Actually, she seemed to practically _giddy._ She was sort of jumping in her seat like she wanted to say something but was holding herself back.

Danny gave the twin she was talking to a _look._ If he was hitting on Jazz... (Danny wished he knew which twin it was he was angry at and which twin he was slowly starting to think of as a friend.)

His parents were easier to immediately locate, what with their bright orange and teal robes and all.

Danny's dad was in a deeply involved conversation with Mr Weasley, who only seemed mildly interested in whatever subject they were discussing. Danny listened in, if only because he was bored.

"We're trying to get the Ministry to use some of the safety features we had on _our_ -"

Realising what his dad was about to say, Danny hurried to interrupt. _"Daaaad,_ you're an Unspeakable. That means you _aren't_ allowed to talk about work."

"Right. Thanks, Dann-o."

Danny gave his mom a meaningful look and she nodded curtly in reply. She'd try to keep tabs on her husband for the rest of the night.

Mr Weasley seemed thankful for an opportunity to change the subject. "So, Danny? I hear you'll be transferring to Hogwarts this fall. What year will you be joining? "

"Fifth year."

"Like Ron, then." Mrs Weasley smiled at him and inclined her head slightly towards the aforementioned teen.

Danny nodded, because he honestly couldn't think of something non-sarcastic to say. Ron was still looking at the Fentons oddly. Like he was having trouble figuring them out. Come to think of it, that sort of expression _wasn't_ all that uncommon on people faced with Danny's dad. Danny simply wasn't used to it being turned on himself.

When did he become as weird as his dad?

 _No,_ there was no way Danny was _that_ weird. Surely he was misunderstanding something.

"Speaking of Hogwarts." Mr Weasley sounded unsure, and turned slightly towards his wife as if looking for support or courage. "You work at the Ministry, so I'm sure you've heard the rumours about Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster..."

Danny's parents blinked in confusion. Apparently he wasn't the only clueless one in the family, but sending a look in Jazz's direction revealed that his sister had some idea of what Mr Weasley was talking about.

"You've chosen a bad time to come to Britain, I'm afraid." Mrs Wealsey added the comment, seemingly taking pity on them. "He-who-must-not-be-named has returned."

"I thought he was dead." Danny's mom shot him a look.

"I'll look into it." Danny shrugged. It wasn't like he was an expert on everybody who died, but he could ask around.

The Weasleys seemed quite mystified by this, but nobody questioned it aloud. The Fentons were thankful for that, and perfectly comfortable with leaving their guests in the dark.

"The Ministry is denying it." Mr Weasley got them back on track. "They are claiming that Dumbledore is lying about it as some sort of power-play."

Danny let out an indignant snort.

"That's... very _irresponsible."_ Danny's mother seemed to agree with his assessment. Her face turned to a frown as she contemplated the reasons and consequences. "If there's even a possibility of him being back..."

"Ah, yes. It's not very..." Mr Weasley looked like he had more he wanted to say, but didn't dare to. "You realize you shouldn't talk about this at work."

Both the older Fentons nodded, uncharacteristically serious.

"If the Ministry isn't doing anything about it... Is anyone else?" Danny's dad had a look on his face that he only really had when constructing security wards.

"There... are some people." Mr Weasley seemed more hesitant than ever. "But with the Death Eaters acting in the dark, it's important to be careful with whom to trust."

Danny wasn't sure of whether he felt admiration for the well thought-out tactic, or insulted by the implications.

"We'll talk again, then." Danny's mom glanced his way. "After we've confirmed things."

Mr Weasley seemed thankful for the offered exit and was swift in changing the subject to more light-hearted matters.

Like how the sausages were trying to escape and start a rebellion.

* * *

 **AN:** I'm not sure how good normal people are at telling the difference between identical twins, since I'm prosopagnostic and therefore can't even tell the difference between non-identical people. (For the longest time I thought John Cusack played Neo in the Matrix.) It's super awkward.

Jazz's happiness will be expanded upon in the next chapter, but _no,_ there will be no non-canon pairings. There will barely be any canon pairings.


	5. Plans

**Plans**

Danny gave his sister a level gaze.

 _Something_ was going on. Even the grave atmosphere of the dinner conversation hadn't managed to dampen her enthusiasm.

The two of them were in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner. Six guests meant more than double the dishes, so they'd agreed to share the chore for the evening.

"Jazz..." Danny passed her another freshly cleaned plate to dry off. "What's up?"

Jazz grinned at the china, like she and it were sharing a secret. Before she could say anything, their parents entered the kitchen with the last of the tableware.

Jazz gave them a bright smile as she turned around, bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet. "I have big news!"

Danny frowned. If she was willing to share, it probably wasn't about some guy. He silently sent his apologies to Fred-maybe-George.

"You know how hard I worked on my N.E.W.T.s last year..." Jazz trailed off, like she was stopping herself from babbling.

The rest of the family nodded. There was no way to forget it.

"It paid off! I've gotten an apprenticeship at St Mungo's! I'm starting as Trainee Healer on Monday!" The words were blurred as Jazz blurted them out in a fast stream, but they were understandable.

"That's my Jazzerincess!"

"Good job."

"Congrats, Jazz." Danny smiled, genuinely happy for her.

"I'm at the Janus Thickey Ward, under Healer Strout." Jazz was practically glowing, putting a certain weight in the words that made it clear she was beyond pleased with her new position.

Danny nodded like he understood what she was talking about.

* * *

Danny slouched on the couch in the living room, the morning sunlight falling on his face.

He looked at the letter in his hand. The parchment was fine, with a rich texture. It felt expensive. (Why anyone felt the need to waste money on high quality _parchment_ Danny would never understand.) The ink was a dark green. The Hogwarts crest decorated the top corner. It was all very _official._

Danny had read through the acceptance letter (really more of a transfer letter, but there was no reason to split hairs) twice. There was also a list of supplies he needed to bring, depending on which courses he decided to take.

He needed to decide which courses to take.

Jazz, of course, was hoovering over him and the list of choices, offering input that he didn't ask for. You'd think that she'd be busy with her own life, now that she'd actually gotten herself one, but _no._ (Of course, it was only Saturday, so she hadn't actually started yet.)

Thinking back to his electables in Casper High, Danny was pleased to note that Ghoul Studies wasn't available. (He hadn't wanted to take the course to begin with, but his parents had forced him to.) However, Hogwarts _did_ offer Ancient Runes. Danny circled it quickly, putting it down on the list which books to buy, because it was best to take a subject he actually knew. Especially since he'd be taking his O.W.L.s in the spring.

Danny groaned loudly, startling Jazz. She took that as an invitation to sit down, which it really wasn't.

"Why don't you take Arithmancy?"

He glared at her. "Right, because I'll _totally_ be able to keep up with fifth year Arithmancy. Because my grades were _so_ good."

Jazz raised a single eyebrow. "You don't really have that many choices, little brother."

She was right, but so was he. He'd probably have better odds of passing an entirely new course, even though Arithmancy had been obligatory in Casper. Any type of study of numbers was naturally evil. (No matter what Jazz said.)

"Well, _not_ Care of Magical Creatures..."

"Why not? It sounds interesting..."

"Animals can sense the death, Jazz. Or smell it or something, I don't know." Danny kept his voice flat, unemotional. He would have loved to take Care of Magical Creatures, but that wasn't an option. After the Accident most animals (especially magical ones) were afraid of him.

"Sorry. How about Muggle Studies?"

"But it sounds so _boring._ Who cares about..." Danny waved his hand, trying to come up with an example. "...cell phones. Owls are cooler." Even if they were afraid of him... maybe cell phones had their good points. At least Spooky, the Fenton Family Owl, was used to him.

"It would get Tucker it stop laughing at you."

"Still boring."

He looked down at the list, sad to find that there was only _one_ available course where he could keep up with fifth year work. Danny drew an unenthusiastic circle around Divination.

His sister wasn't impressed. He ignored her.

"Mom! Dad! I figured out which books to buy!" Danny screamed in the general direction of the kitchen, hoping that his parents were there.

True to form, his father's face appeared in the doorway. "That's great, Danny-boy!"

His mother followed quickly, removing an apron. "Then we can finally head down to Diagon Alley, just as soon as I've finished the cookies."

* * *

 **AN:** Trainee Healers are canonically a thing, even if we haven't been given any details on the subject. Still, apprenticeship makes sense. By all accounts, magical Britain isn't populous enough for there to be enough students to make a full class. It also works pretty well with how old-fashioned it is.

This chapter became more of an... intermezzo that I thought it would. I should have probably just put the part with Jazz at the end of the last chapter and had Danny choosing courses as the beginning of the next. Too late for that now, so I'll try to update twice this week, to actually give you peeps some content.

I'm not planning on adding either Danielle or Dan. Cloning doesn't work with a strict fantasy universe and Harry Potter time travel doesn't allow Dan to exist.


	6. Shopping

**Shopping**

Diagon Alley wasn't as dissimilar to the mall where Danny usually shopped as he would have expected. The types of stores were largely the same, the British and Americans alike needed books and potion ingredients, even if the architecture was completely different.

Mainly, the place was much more personal and sort of _cozy,_ which was not a word Danny would ever use about the Pottsfield mall.

The people around them only added to the friendly atmosphere. In one end of the alley, a green-clad wizard was bartering loudly over trunks. On the other side of the street, two old witches were gossiping. The stuffed animals on their hats had their own conversation, which involved a huge amount of posturing.

It was sort of jarring when you knew that there was possibly a Dark Lord running around. Danny still needed to check on that, but that would take time and the shopping trip had been planned since they'd moved. After all, his parents needed to make sure their bank account was in working order before the end of the month brought their first pay-checks.

"Kids, why don't you go and get Danny fitted for school robes while we deal with Gringotts?" Danny's mom gave them a small smile.

Right. School uniforms. Danny had actually managed to forget that part. Sam would have complained, but Danny didn't have the energy to protest it. Besides, he didn't want to stand out – going along with the uniforms would help with that. He would already be 'the American', no need to add anything else to it.

"Might as well get it over with." Danny nodded, turning to Jazz to see what she thought.

Jazz shrugged. "It'll be more time efficient that way, I guess."

As such, the siblings turned left after a small restaurant with a rather smock-full outdoor seating and many brightly coloured parasols.

Despite the dark wood it was built of, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions was a bright place, in no small part due to the many full length mirrors lined up against the wall.

While Jazz entered at a brisk pace, Danny's slower steps betrayed his hesitance.

"Hello, dearies." A short witch with white hair, clad in different tones of purple, greeted them with a smile. "I am Madam Malkin, welcome to my shop."

"I need a Hogwarts uniform."

Madam Malkin looked him over, pulling him along to a footstool in front of one of the mirrors. "A transfer, then? That's rare... And from America, too." Madam Malkin caught his confused blink. "I recognize the accent."

"We had to move for our parents' work." It wasn't technically a lie.

"Well then, let's get you fitted." Madam Malkin hummed slightly as she pulled a robe over Danny's head and started attacking it with pins.

On the closest footstool, another witch was fitting robes on a blonde girl. She had her head turned towards Danny, not bothering to hide that she had been listening in on the previous conversation.

"Err... Hi? Do you go to Hogwarts? I'm Danny Fenton."

"I do. Luna Lovegood," she inclined her head slightly. There was a smile on her face, and her eyes were dreamy and far off.

"Got any tips?" Danny couldn't help but be hopeful. Going to a new school, in a new country, he needed all the help he could get.

"Beware the nargles."

"Nargles? We don't have those in America." He frowned, trying to remember if he'd ever heard about them before but coming up blank.

"Oh, yes you do." Luna seemed completely confident in her statement. Her tone was soft, but there was an underlying hardness to it.

Well, maybe Danny was wrong. He was hardly an expert. Or even all that interested in the subject.

"Okay, but I don't think I need to worry about that. Magical creatures tend to avoid me." He flashed her a smile.

She blinked at him, pity fighting envy inside her eyes. "Maybe you don't."

"So, what are nargles?"

Luna smiled softly, and began explaining.

Danny was willing to believe _a lot_ that normal people found weird. His parents' jobs sort of forced him to. He knew there were things out there that the public didn't know about. Invisible creatures that stole shoes and lived in mistletoe were, however, more than he was willing to accept. It seemed more likely that the reason Danny had never heard about nargles before was because they didn't exist. The two tailors seemed to be of similar opinion, if the silent looks they shared were any indication.

Still, it seemed all kinds of rude to say that. Not when Luna so obviously cared about the subject. _Especially_ not when Luna had been nothing but nice to him.

He was saved from whatever disaster he was going to say by Madam Malkin.

"Will you be needing dragon-hide gloves, as well? We usually sell them to new students, but you might already have a pair."

"I'm good on that front." Danny nodded, trying to keep his body perfectly still even as his head moved. The needles she were poking his robe with looked sharp.

"Well then." The stout witch smiled, pinning up the fabric to get the proper length. "I'm all done. You can come and pick them up at the end of the day. Pay me then."

Danny smiled back, stepping down from the stool so that the tailor could help him pull off the robe without dislodging any pins. "Bye, Lovegood. I'll see you at school."

She nodded, seemingly looking straight through him. He couldn't help but wonder how much Legilimency she knew. "I'll see you at school."

When Danny was free from the fabric and the weird conversation, which honestly hadn't been all that bad, his parents were waiting outside the shop.

"When did dad even have time to get ice-cream?" Jazz was looking out the window, a small frown on her face.

"Eh, probably on the way here. You know how he is. At least they got some for us too." Danny gestured towards the two cones their mother was holding.

"If the green one is mint and not pear, you're taking it."

"Fine by me."

They joined their family outside, stopping to enjoy their ice-creams and the sunshine before continuing the shopping trip.

* * *

Flourish and Blotts was as boring as any visit to a book store usually was. Apparently, the British had yet to invent a way to make Danny care about literature. (Mr Lancer would be disappointed, but not surprised.)

However, his sister was of an entirely different opinion. When they left, Jazz's bag of newly bought books was heavier than Danny's. He'd checked, and proceeded to made fun of her for it.

She stuck her tongue out at him when their parents weren't looking.

"And here I thought you were all grown up and ready to become a medi-witch." Danny smirked.

Jazz rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

She was probably still happy about her new books, Danny decided. "Nerd."

"Shut up."

Danny was so caught up in their teasing, that he completely forgot to pay any attention to where they were going.

Their parents lead them to a smaller store. Danny looked up as he caught the door, holding it open for Jazz.

His eyes widened at what he saw.

Everywhere around him there were _telescopes._ Brass, silver, even one in gold which stood separate from the others in a glass case.

"Surprise." His mom smiled at him. "We thought about getting you an owl to celebrate getting into Hogwarts, but... you know."

Danny nodded, his mind whirring with thoughts. Even if they didn't say it, the new telescope was obviously meant as an apology for forcing him to start at the illustrious British boarding school. His parents were (sort of) buying back his loyalty. (The 'sort of' applied because they'd never actually _lost_ his loyalty in the first place.)

If it had been anyone else, he wouldn't have agreed to it. (Vlad had certainly tried it.) However, they were his parents. It was a completely different thing.

Or at least that's what Danny told himself as he drooled over a modern brass telescope with _so many_ dials that he wasn't even sure what all of them did.

* * *

 **AN:** Plenty of people write in the reviews about how they're interested in the "mystery" of what's going on. It's sort of funny, because I hadn't even considered how this could be interpreted as mystery, since I haven't really tried to keep stuff hidden. It's more that I haven't had a good opportunity to add it everything yet. Don't want to info-dump, you know? I'll explain fully what's going on at some point, don't worry about it.

There's only one thing that I considered a mystery of sort, and that was because Danny doesn't know about it. (That chapter is going to be _fun._ ) Still, I haven't foreshadowed that one properly yet, so don't over-think it. (Or do, if that's your thing.)


	7. The Colour of Death

**The Colour of Death**

The Death Chamber in the Department of Mysteries was as cold and dark as Danny remembered it. He wondered idly if people who studied death generally believed that such studies _should_ be conducted in dreary environments.

Danny's parents were of a differing opinion, if the amount of candles they had brought were any indication, but they had always been the odd ones out. Danny didn't pay much attention to the altered decor.

The Veil called to him.

As close as he was to it, he could nearly make out its whispers. The cold that radiated from it chilled him to his bones, but Danny found that comfortable.

"Sweetie, be careful." His mother's voice broke through the nearly hypnotising haze, making Danny turn around.

"Of course." He smiled at her before turning back to the gently fluttering fabric.

The whispers quickly returned in the silence of the room, but Danny paid them little heed. He was close enough to it that the shifting fabric caressed his face. The touches sent chills down his spine. Exhaling slowly and closing his eyes, Danny took a single step forward through the Veil.

It was as exhilarating as it was disorienting. The world spun and reshaped itself. Or was it _Danny_ that changed?

When he opened his eyes again, he was met by a grey room. The Death Chamber looked exactly the same, except that his parents were nowhere in sight.

The Veil behind him glowed faintly in a neon green colour.

Taking his attention away from the room, Danny quickly examined himself. Everything seemed to be as it should. His feet weren't touching the floor, his arms were slightly silver and translucent, and he felt cold to the core.

Danny stretched his ghostly arms, getting used to the lack of gravitational influence. Walking through the Veil was always an interesting experience, but he was getting used to the changes a lot faster than he had that disastrous first time.

Which was good, because he was a half-ghost on a mission.

At the end of the chamber was a door, which sat in the same place as the door in real life. The door was grey, but if he looked at it from the corner of his eye it appeared to be a deep purple.

Danny walked through the door, taking the time to open it. Ghosts couldn't just walk through stuff in the Infinite Realms. That had been one of the first things he learned about the place, as he had tried passing through a wall. That ghosts could feel pain had been a discovery he could do without.

Unlike in the real world, the door lead directly outside.

He was in a city, which simultaneously looked exactly like London and _nothing_ like London. The buildings were all in styles he'd seen in the capital, some of them were actual buildings he'd walked past, but the layout was different. The Leaky Cauldron, which was usually found on a busy street filled with cars and the like, stood directly facing the river. The street outside it was cobblestone rather than asphalt. Still, it was no denying that the feel of the place was the same, like a spiritual successor.

Danny laughed at his own joke. His voice echoed.

He took a second to orient himself. This wasn't his part of the Realms, and any knowledge of the real London would be less than useless. Not that he had any knowledge of the real London.

Really, the only viable option was to ask for directions.

The first ghost he saw was an aristocratic looking woman dressed in Victorian clothing. She was as grey as the buildings and trees surrounding them.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for the train station."

She looked down her nose at him as she directed him towards King's Cross.

The ghostly realms were interesting to look at. Everything was in a silvery greyscale, except the sky, which looked like a swirl of different toxic greens.

The colour of the killing curse was no coincidence.

Danny found the train station without much fuzz, making sure to remember the way back to the alternate Department of Mysteries. If he got lost... well, he'd be in trouble. He wouldn't be stuck, per se, he knew the way to the other two Veils. However, going back to the one at FentonWorks would reveal a lot more to the authorities that had taken over his old house than he wanted to. With his luck it would cement their idea that his parents were Dark.

The _other_ other Veil was not an option for different reasons.

Finding the right train when he'd made it to the station was easy. After all, every single train went where you wanted it to. It was an unexpected bonus to being dead.

One might think that staying in London would be ideal, since Danny's purpose was to ask about Voldemort. However, that meant that he'd need to ask around until he found someone who had the knowledge he was looking for... and the vast majority of ghosts were muggles that had died long before the Dark Lord's time.

He'd much prefer it if the task didn't take the entire year. Especially since he'd be going away in a week. (Just a week!? Where had all the time gone?)

Danny got off the train in the ghostly counterpart of Amity Park.

The most interesting feature of the town was a tall clock tower that didn't exist in the city he'd grown up in. It stood right next to the school, in which he'd met his sort-of-friend Sidney little over a year ago.

Danny would be back to talk to Sidney some other time, for the moment he had stuff to do. It wasn't like the ghost really noticed how long time passed between visits – time in the Realms was a fickle thing, mostly due to the lack of change in the place. Every single day was just like the one before, barring the inclusion of new ghosts, and the lack of a sun made dividing the time into days an iffy affair at best.

Danny didn't knock on the door to the clock tower, he just opened it and entered. He was expected, that was the beauty of being friends with somebody who could see the future.

The stairs made him appreciate his ability to gently float above the ground. Actually _climbing_ them would have been a nightmare.

However, the view from the top of the tower might have made it worthwhile. It was so tall, it felt like you could see _everything_ from there.

Of course, one ghost could.

"Mr Work." Danny smiled. "How's it going?"

Clark Work was... hard to place. He had the sort of face where you couldn't tell how old he was. His one memorable feature was a scar that stretched across one off his eyes. He wore a wizarding robe and cloak that was so simple that Danny couldn't use it to figure out which time period Work had been alive.

Clark Work was in many ways an enigma, but there was one thing Danny knew about him. He was the strongest Seer the world had ever seen. Somehow, despite wizards losing their magic in death, he had only grown stronger in the Sight as a ghost.

"I'm fine, but _you..._ I hear _you'll_ be taking Divination." Mr Work smiled. There was something sardonic about it.

Danny fidgeted. He hadn't been sure of how Work would react, but it wasn't like he'd had many options.

"Forget everything I taught you about time and you'll do fine." Work was still smirking, but he _always_ looked like he was in on a joke that he wouldn't share.

Danny nodded, relieved. Not that the instruction made any sense, but conversations with Work usually didn't. That was how the ghost amused himself.

"So, about the _real_ reason you decided to visit me... I'll tell you this, _you're_ more dead than Voldemort ever was. There are actually some similarities in how you survived. He's too afraid of death to realise it, but..." Something passed over Works eyes and he stopped in the middle of the sentence. "That's not important to you. What's important is that he _has_ returned."

By force of habit and nothing more, Danny sucked in a sharp breath. "That's dangerous."

"Indeed."

"Any tips?"

"I would say 'Don't get killed,' except that hardly seems to matter to you."

Danny smiled. "No, I've got that part under control."

* * *

To pass through the Veil into the Infinite Realms, you needed to die.

To walk back to the world of the living, resurrection was the key that opened the metaphorical door.

For most people, it was impossible. For Danny it was as easy as willing it. He was the master of his own death, and decided himself when he turned ghost or when he went human.

Danny sighed as his body gained flesh and gravity once more pulled him down. Colour returned to his world as he blinked in the dreary darkness of the Department of Mysteries.

Once again alive, he smiled weakly at his parents. "The Weasleys were right."

* * *

 **AN:** Yeah, Danny is still half-ghost. It just means something different in this fic as compared to DP canon. Having half of one's soul turning ghost is kind of similar to a horcrux, but not really... The pieces of Danny's soul are still intimately connected and inside his body. Clockwork realised that Danny wouldn't find it as interesting as he'd find it completely terrifying. CW isn't as all-knowing as in DP canon, so he almost said it, because _he_ finds it fascinating. It's not often someone like him runs into an unique situation.

So yeah, Danny is not a necromancer. I don't think I could write a good-aligned necromancer without the story turning into either angst or parody.

I wanted to take the concept of a ghost realm but make it for HP ghosts. As such, the Infinite Realms is a combination of the Ghost Zone, the Limbo where Harry met Dumbledore in _Deathly_ _Hallows,_ Harry Potter ghosts and a general mixture of afterlife myths.

The ghost Danny asks for directions isn't supposed to be any specific DP or HP character.


	8. Express Delivery

**Express Delivery**

The real King's Cross was very different from the one in the Infinite Realms. Maybe it was the bright colours on the clothing of the people passing by. Maybe it was the was the way voices blended together into background noise without echoing. Maybe it was the modernisation.

In any case, Danny thought it was an improvement.

The four members of the Fenton family found the platform without much trouble, thanks to detailed instructions courtesy of Mr Weasley.

His mom was taking front as they passed through the barrier, followed closely by Jazz. His dad walked two steps behind, carrying Danny's green and grey duffel bag. (No way he was trading that in for a trunk.) Danny waited a few seconds so that they would have time to move away from the entrance.

He had been surprised when Jazz took time off work to send him off, but maybe he shouldn't have been. She always did get angry at their parents whenever _they_ let work get in the way of spending time as a family.

Thinking that enough time had passed, Danny walked towards the entrance to platform nine and three quarters.

Danny ignored the ache in his heart that felt completely _right_ at going through a seemingly solid wall. Like that was what he was supposed to do, and to deny himself it was wrong. He still hadn't gotten used to ignoring such impulses, if only because morbid fascination made him hold on to them too long.

(Going ghost outside of the Realms and walking through walls only made the feeling _intensify_ when he turned back into a human again. Life could never just be easy. Or afterlife, or whatever he was supposed to call it. The English language was not made for people who were both alive and dead at the same time. Danny wondered if any language was.)

The magical side of King's Cross came as something of a shock. The lack of modernisation made it look closer to the Infinite Realms than the muggle side, with the Hogwarts Express looking almost exactly like the train Danny had taken the previous week. However, the bright red colour the locomotive was enough to shake Danny from his daydreaming and make him run to catch up with his family.

He would have lost them in the midst of people if not for his dad's height. The man was at least a head taller than everyone around him, which made him easy to find even on the crowed platform.

"Well, Danny-boy... I guess this is it." Danny's dad handed over the old bag.

Danny nodded, struck by the finality of his dad's tone.

"Make sure you take care of yourself, sweetie. I'll send Spooky around once a week, so make sure to write us." His mom bent down and kissed his forehead.

"Once a month." Danny rubbed his forehead, as if to clean it.

"Once every other week."

Shrugging at his mom in forced agreement, Danny turned to Jazz. "I guess you want to tell me to study properly or something."

"Hogwarts is a great opportunity for you!" Jazz defended herself with a smile.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say."

"Well..." His mother trailed off, seemingly unsure of what to say. "Good by, then. We love you!"

The sentiment was echoed by the rest of the family and Danny forced a smile onto his face. He sort of felt like crying, but that was ridiculous.

Telling himself that it was ridiculous didn't make the feeling go away. He'd never been away from his family for so long before, he'd miss them.

Still, he smiled as he waved his good byes and boarded the train.

It was hard work to find an empty compartment, but Danny didn't feel up to sharing at the moment. Not when he was still unsure of whether he'd burst out in tears at any moment.

When he finally found some loneliness, he hefted his bag onto the shelf and sat down to look out the window. The train was still standing still and he had a good view of the platform, but it seemed like his family had already left.

That was probably for the best.

Danny sank further into the seat, keeping an eye out the window as the train started moving. Outside, witches and wizards were waving farewell. They were all strangers to him, he noticed. It was nothing like in Amity, where he could recognize the every single member of the magical community.

As it finally hit him that he would go to school with a bunch of people he didn't know, the door to his cabin opened and people he _did_ know entered.

The Weasley twins looked from Danny to the empty cabin and grinned before entering.

Behind them, a black kid with dreadlocks rolled his eyes. "Can we sit here? It's kind of full everywhere else."

Danny raised an eyebrow at this, because the twins had already put away their trunks and taken the seats opposite of him. "Sure."

"I'm Lee Jordan, by the way. The rude people are Fred and George Weasley."

"Danny Fenton."

Fred-maybe-George pouted dramatically at the insult. "We've already met Danny."

"What? How? When?"

"Our dad met his parents at work."

"Really? So, your parents work at the Ministry then?"

Danny nodded. "They're Unspeakables."

Lee blanched at that, which made Danny narrow his eyes.

"Why does everyone react like that? They're just studying some... dangerous subjects."

"Because" George-maybe-Fred leaned over and put his arm around Danny's shoulders, pulling him close enough that he could hear his voice which was lowered into a conspiratorial whisper. "Unspeakables..."

"Yes?" Danny was at the edge of his seat.

"Are _really_ scary."

"What?"

"It's true." Fred-maybe-George nodded his head. "Your parents are the only approachable Unspeakables ever, even dad said that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Compared to most Unspeakables, your parents are practically _normal_ people."

Danny couldn't help but grin at that. _"My_ parents, normal? And here I though you were there when the dad's wards decided to cover your whole family in Fenton Goo."

"It's all a matter of who you compare them to." Fred-maybe-George nodded sagely, as if he'd just dispersed some true words of wisdom.

Maybe he had.

Danny shook his head, some part of him would not stand people considering his parents normal. It was too _weird_. "Let's put it like this, then... What's the name of your house?"

"...The Burrow."

"I live in _FentonWorks 2: This Time It's English._ " Danny did a half-hearted imitation of his dad as he said it.

The twins looked at each other at that, having some sort of quiet conversation. Lee's eyebrows shot up to hide behind his hair.

"Okay, fine. You win. Your family is weird. I only meant they were normal _'for_ _Unspeakables'"_

Danny nodded in mock-seriousness. "As long as we understand each other."

The quiet atmosphere was broken two seconds later when all of them started laughing.

They were still giggling like fools when a small knock came from the door. "Anything from the trolley, dears?"

Fred and George shrugged in tandem. "No thanks, we've got out own."

"Speaking of which... Danny, want a biscuit?" Fred-maybe-George smiled as he held up a cookie.

"Sure, thanks."

Danny completely missed the mischievous looks the other three occupants of the cabin gave each other as he tried the pastry.

However, he began to have some misgivings as he suddenly turned into a canary.

Before he had time to panic, the yellow feathers started falling off him.

The other three boys were laughing so hard they doubled over, and Danny soon found himself joining them.

"Heh, that's a good prank. Haven't fallen from one of those since... Well, let's just say my last prank war got a little out of hand."

George-maybe-Fred smirked smugly. "Are you challenging us to a prank war?"

"You started it." Danny pointed the fact out with a raised eyebrow and a grin, to show that there were no hard feelings.

"Oh, you are _so_ on!"

* * *

 **AN:** Next up is the Sorting ceremony. Anybody feel like guessing where I'll put Danny while you still can?

Since it seems I didn't manage to make it obvious in the last chapter, let me just clarify it – Danny can go ghost, but his ghost form is a HP ghost (like all ghosts in this fic, most notably Clockwork in the last chapter.) As such, ghost powers are... basically just intangibility and flying. That's all HP ghosts can do, especially since HP!poltergeists aren't a type of ghosts...


	9. The Sorting

**AN:** MayAnny, this one's for you.

* * *

 **The** **Sorting**

Danny had good instincts.

These instincts were screaming at him that following the first years to be "Sorted" (whatever that entailed) would only lead to painful humiliation.

So when Fred and George suggested that he'd join the other new arrivals, he interpreted that as a first attack in their prank war and promptly ignored them.

Nobody looked at him twice as he joined the rest of his age group to walk towards a set of open carriages.

The sun had already set, letting the trees be covered in deep shadows. When Danny titled his head back he could see the stars.

No light pollution, huh? They really _were_ in the middle of nowhere.

Not that Amity Park was some sort of metropolis.

Danny smiled to himself as he followed the twins and Lee Jordan to the closest empty carriage.

His smile faltered slightly as he saw the animals pulling the thing. Skeletal horses with the same type of wings as bats or dragons, and big glassy eyes. It looked dead, but the creepiest part might have been how _focused_ the unblinking eyes were on Danny.

"What are _those?"_

Lee gave him an incredulous look. "Yeah, the carriages pull themselves. I think they're charmed or something."

Danny blinked. Was there such a thing as Ghost Vision?

However, that felt wrong somehow and he quickly pushed away the thought. The pegasi didn't _feel_ like ghosts. There was _something_ dead about them, not just the way they looked, but they were undoubtedly more alive than Danny himself.

To his great relief, the animals didn't shy away as he drew closer to the carriage. The closest one even turned its head to sniff at his sleeve. Danny stopped as the creature huffed, but apparently it liked what it smelled. (Of course, the _one_ creature that wasn't afraid of him would be some sort of creepy pegasus.)

As he climbed into the carriage, he pushed the matter out of his mind. His parents would probably knew what the creatures were, since they seemed to be connected to death somehow. He'd ask them about it in his first letter home, and if seeing them was a ghost thing... Well, no one at Hogwarts would be any wiser to Danny's status.

Sometimes he was really glad that his parents had known about the Accident from the get-go. The thought of trying to hide it from them irked him in ways he couldn't explain. (Even _if_ he'd sort of become a test subject to them.) (As long as none of their test were invasive, he was mostly cool with it. Especially when it let him enter the Infinite Realms.)

The carriage started moving and Danny allowed himself to get involved in some intense discussion about nothing in particular with his new friends.

Danny kept a watchful eye on the road ahead, and was rewarded with his first glimpse of Hogwarts.

Somebody (namely Jazz) should have mentioned to him that it was a _castle!_

A castle!

Danny's shock must have shown on his face, because pretty soon his companions were laughing at him.

That didn't change the fact that he was going to _live_ in a _castle_ and nobody had thought to _tell_ him that.

In some way, it felt like his thoughts were mostly in italics at that point.

The second thing Danny realised, once he had gotten over his initial shock, was that the castle was full of ghosts.

Danny could feel them, much in the same way he sensed the Veil. There was a _chill_ to them, one that completely disregarded all the layers in his robes and turned the air in his lungs bitingly cold.

The carriages finally came to a stop, and Danny started following the crowd into the school

"Mr Fenton?"

The speaker was a tall, stern-looking witch with an authoritative air about her. Danny felt that it was in his best interests to just obey the unspoken command and walk over to her.

"Yes?"

"I am Professor McGonagall. Find me after the feast so that we may sort you in private. For now, you may join your friends." There was a distinct tone of disapproval as the professor looked at the people behind Danny. It was likely deserved, as there were typically 'innocent' whistling coming from that direction.

Danny nodded. "Thanks, professor."

At that, the twins each took one of Danny's arms and dragged him along.

The Great Hall was like nothing Danny had ever seen. It was a good thing he was being led along, because he couldn't pull his gaze from the ceiling. The stars were as visible as they had been outside, with only the floating candles to interrupt the line of sight.

He _needed_ to figure out how to do that spell so he could get something like that in his own room, even if that meant he had to take N.E.W.T.-level Charms.

Without much fanfare, Danny was pushed onto a bench by one of the tables. Red and gold greeted his eyes, as well as the other Weasley siblings he knew.

"Hi, I'm Danny Fenton. I'm a transfer." It sounded more like a question than he would have hoped.

"Danny, that's Hermione Granger and Harry Potter." Fred waved his hand magnanimously towards the two people on their end of the table that weren't redheads.

Harry Potter... the name sounded familiar for some reason, but Danny couldn't place it for the life of him. Maybe there one of his new school books were written by a Barry Potter or something. The kid looked nice enough, nodding once in greeting. "Hi."

Hermione on the other hand looked a bit irritated with not being allowed to introduce herself, but she smiled at Danny all the same. "You're a new Gryffindor, then?"

"Haven't been sorted yet." Danny shrugged.

Professor McGonagall took the stage and Danny felt content to lean back and enjoy himself as the first years were called out to put on an old, singing hat.

* * *

Between the Hat's warning and Professor Umbridge's speech, Danny had a nagging feeling he'd chosen a particularly bad time to start at Hogwarts.

However, there was no time to think about that too closely. The feast was over and the students around him started to head back to their common rooms. Danny was following McGonagall, who was carrying the thread-bare Hat, through wide corridors to get to the Headmaster's office.

The teacher stopped in front of a stone gargoyle.

"Butterscotch-cinnamon pie."

Danny was about to question the logic of ordering pie from a statue when it stood aside, revealing a staircase.

Dumbledore's office was like a cleaner version of his parents' lab. Actually, he was sure they owned their own sets of several of the spindly instruments. However, there were no suspicious-looking silvery stains anywhere.

Well, the complete lack of ghost blood was expected of a headmaster's office.

Professor Dumbledore sat behind a big desk, which was covered in many rolls of parchment. In some ways, he reminded Danny of Clark Work. It was probably the all-knowing twinkle in his eyes. Danny wasn't surprised that he had arrived before them.

The other three adults present were more unexpected.

"These are the Heads of Houses." McGonagall seemed to have noticed Danny's confusion. "Professor Flitwick is Head of Ravenclaw, Professor Sprout is Head of Hufflepuff and Professor Snape is Head of Slytherin."

Danny pretended he didn't notice McGonagall's obvious dislike of all things Slytherin.

"I myself am Head of Gryffindor."

Danny nodded respectfully at each teacher in turn, if only because he couldn't think of anything to say.

"Let's just get this over with." Professor Snape looked like he found the entire thing a waste of his time.

Professor McGonagall glared at him.

Danny shifted his attention to the battered, old Hat in her hands. It felt momentous, somehow. This on moment would influence the rest of his school years.

His hands didn't shake as he accepted the Hat, but there was a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Danny put on the Hat.

Almost immediately, he could feel a presence... not _testing_ his Occlumency shields as much as outright ignoring them. (Danny's parents had felt that learning Occlumency was vital, considering what he was. It was the sort of secret they couldn't afford to be careless with. Further, it was an expected skill of Unspeakables and Danny was sort of an intern...)

It was worrying, what if the Hat found out about-

There was a sense of laughter ringing through his head. "Hold that thought, there is no need to worry. I am the Sorting Hat. I can sense your personality and read your surface thoughts, but I cannot _dig_ like you fear I will. If you don't think about it, I won't know it."

Danny forced every single secret he'd ever have to keep into a dark corner of his mind and then proceeded to pretend they weren't there.

The Hat seemed to find that incredibly amusing. "Let's 'get this over with', as Professor Snape so kindly put it."

Danny agreed.

"Let's see, then. Everything I need is right here in your head... There is bravery, yes. Cunning too. You're not afraid of resorting to tricks when facing a stronger opponent... Still, what matters most isn't what you are capable of, but rather _why_ you choose to use your skills. What you _value_. That's why, it better be... HUFFLEPUFF."

* * *

 **AN** : There are _many_ DP/HP crossovers. I've seen a _lot_ of Danny in Gryffindor or Slytherin, and both of those houses make sense. However, I think Danny might be the quintessential Hufflepuff. (He works _so_ _hard_ on keeping Amity Park safe, he's very loyal, etc.) I was a bit worried this would be controversial, since it's the least popular house, but your comments last chapter gave me confidence. Thanks!

This doesn't mean Danny won't interact with our favourite Gryffindors, after all OotP is the year of the DA. Also, he foolishly entered a prank war against the Weasley twins.

Vlad _will_ appear later. Not for a while, he's not planning on invading Hogwarts, but he'll show up.


	10. First Day of School

**First Day of School**

When Danny woke that morning, the first thing he noticed was that the light against his eyelids was wrong. Like the window was not only on the wrong side of the bed, but actually _facing_ the sunrise.

His heartbeat sped up as he pretended to sleep, trying to figure out where he was and why. Well, actually the _why_ part was easy – everything was always Vlad's fault.

Danny heard a heavy snore from his left.

Oh, _right._ He hadn't been kidnapped, he was at boarding school. That explained it.

Danny opened his eyes and was greeted by the copper lamps and patchwork quilts of the Hufflepuff dormitories.

Nobody else was awake, but he had too much adrenaline flowing through his veins to go back to sleep.

Danny got dressed, thinking about the odd lighting. While Hufflepuff's Common Room was hidden in the basement, it still managed to feel sunny due to the circular "windows" that didn't actually show the outside.

He followed the tunnels back into the Common Room, and sat down in one of the yellow and black sofas. It was too soft, he sank into the cushions until his feet weren't touching the floor anymore.

Hufflepuff's Common Room was, in one word, homely. It was decorated with light wood and burnished copper, with plenty of plants hiding in the corners. One of them moved slightly without any wind, as if waving at Danny.

Danny waved back hesitantly.

Well, if he was going to have to wait for everyone else to wake up, since he probably couldn't find the Great Hall on his own, he might as well get started on a letter home.

 _Dear mom and dad (and Jazz)_

 _Travelling by train was alright. I sat with the Weasley twins, so at least I wasn't bored._

 _Since I know Jazz probably read all about Hogwarts I might as well tell you that I was sorted into Hufflepuff. It means I'm loyal or something, I don't know. Well, becoming friends with a bunch of loyal people sounds good._

 _I need to ask you about something, though. There's these weird pegasi that pull the school carriages that it seems like nobody else can see. They are big, black and sort of creepy. Also, they don't seem to be afraid of me. Do you know what they are?_

 _Best regards, Danny._

As he signed his hastily thrown together letter, somebody else entered the Common Room.

He was Danny's age, blonde and slightly chubby. There was a Prefect's badge on his chest. He held himself with confidence, but both of his hands were visible and he didn't seem to be on guard. He was obviously not a threat.

Danny scolded himself for immediately assessing the threat level of his new housemate.

The boy blinked a few times when he saw Danny, as if he was a mirage that would go away if he just fixed his vision.

"Hi. I'm Danny Fenton." Danny pulled himself from the ridiculously overstuffed sofa. "Moved from America because of my parents' job. I'm a fifth year."

"Ernie Macmillan, also fifth year. Nobody mentioned-"

"You were all asleep." Danny shrugged. "Professor Sprout didn't want to wake anybody up."

"Well then, as a Prefect, I better show you around." Ernie puffed up his chest even more.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Sure."

* * *

The Great Hall was slowly filling up with people. Danny ate some cereal (not the overly sugary kind he preferred, but even plain cereal was better than toast) and listened with half an ear as Ernie explained everything he thought Danny should know about Hogwarts.

Danny sat facing the door, as usual. As such, he saw when the Weasley twins entered. They scanned the room before their eyes locked onto Danny. He gave them a small wave. Fred gave George something that glittered of copper, probably a knut.

It was an odd feeling to realise that his friends had been betting on which House he'd end up in.

"Are you even listening to me?"

Danny turned back towards Ernie. "Watch out for the moving stairs?"

"I was warning you about Snape."

Danny scrunched up his face in thought, the name sounded familiar. "The cranky guy... Head of Slytherin?"

"That's the one. He's the Potions professor and he's only nice towards Slytherins. We Hufflepuffs get lucky if he's half-way decent, so don't push it. Just lay low."

"Noted."

Ernie looked like he was about to say something else, but he was interrupted as two more Hufflepuffs joined their end of the table.

"Hey, Ernie. Who's the new kid?" The speaker was a boy with curly blond hair and a big smile.

"You _could_ just ask him directly." The last arrival sat down next to Danny, holding out a hand. "I'm Hannah Abbot."

"Danny Fenton."

"Justin Finch-Fletchey." The boy leaned across the table, making the edge of his sleeve hang worryingly close to Danny's cereal. He shook the offered appendage quickly in order to keep his breakfast safe. "So, what's your story?"

Danny decided to give the shortest version he could, while still covering the subject thoroughly enough that they wouldn't think he was keeping things secret. (Because he was.) "Mom and dad got a job at the Ministry, so I was transferred from Casper."

A discussion broke out regarding the differences in American and British magical education. Even though Danny hadn't had a single lesson yet and was therefore woefully unprepared to compare things. "We don't have Houses, I think that's strictly a British thing."

"That's boring." Justin shrugged. "I mean, a little competition can be fun. Even if we always lose... and the Gryffindors and Slytherins take it too far."

"We had more of a school spirit going on. Casper isn't a boarding school. Back home there is one school in each major magical settlement. They'd come over for Quidditch games and stuff."

The discussion shifted onto sports and Danny felt himself relaxing. Nobody was digging to deeply into things best left alone.

* * *

Hermione Granger was digging too deeply into things best left alone.

After Moody had made a point to warn them about the transfer student, how could she not? If an overly paranoid ex-Auror thought there was reason to be suspicious... Actually, Moody was probably just being his constantly vigilant self.

Normally, she would have been able to ignore his ramblings. However, Hermione had a nagging feeling she'd heard the name Fenton somewhere before. (Or more likely, _read_ it somewhere before.) It was driving her to distraction.

It was a good thing they hadn't gotten any homework yet.

* * *

It had taken all of his self-control, but Danny had kept his mouth shut the entire first Defence Against Dark Art's lesson.

He was already regretting it.

However, the rest of the Hufflepuffs hadn't said anything about the obviously worthless lesson plan. As an outsider, it wasn't Danny's place to question things.

"Is Defence education in Britain always this bad?"

"I want to say 'no'..." Hannah looked a bit pained, but not as exhausted as Danny.

"Meh, I say Umbridge is worse than Lockhart." Ernie shrugged.

"Lockhart wasn't bad." Justin looked personally offended.

"Just because you had a crush on him doesn't make him a good teacher." Ernie rolled his eyes, as if they'd had that same discussion many times before.

"It seems like we won't actually _learn_ anything. Now, normally I'm all for slacking off..." Danny trailed off, not sure he wanted to continue.

"There's not much we can do about it." Hannah looked worried as she realized something. "I hope we can still learn enough to pass our O.W.L.s"

"There's got to be _something_ we can do about it."

"Eh, Umbridge will be gone by next year." Justin didn't look the tiniest bit concerned about his grim prediction. At Danny's confused look, he added "The post is cursed, there hasn't been a single professor who's had it more than one year."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I guess I'm ahead of you when it comes to Defense, then."

"Probably. We've only had two good professors, and one of them turned out to be a polyjuiced Death Eater."

Danny didn't even know what to say to that.

* * *

 **AN** : The design of Hufflepuff's dormitories and common room is taken from Pottermore.

I'm taking some small liberties with the Hufflepuffs personalities, because there isn't much to work with. I'll stick as close to canon as possible, but... yeah. _Hufflepuff_. They don't have enough lines for me to be able to internalize their voices.

Sorry for not actually writing the Defense lesson, but Hufflepuffs generally aren't as confrontational as Gryffindors and Umbridge delivering her speech uninterrupted (with Danny reacting to it) doesn't seem all that interesting to me.

Happy Holidays!


	11. Going to War

**Going to War**

There were no formal rules in a prank war that forbade the use of ghost powers.

That was either because nobody expected the use of ghost powers, or because there were no formal rules to begin with.

Danny wasn't overly concerned with such petty details.

He floated through the empty hallways as a ghost. Sleeping portraits lined his path. Danny looked at them with more than a hint of worry. More than having to explain why he was out of bed, explaining that he wasn't actually _dead_ before anyone panicked... that would be hard. The consequences would be horrible even _after_ he'd calmed everyone down. The wizarding world was not kind to hybrids.

Finding out where the Gryffindor dormitories were had been easy. All he'd needed to do was ask, in the spirit of the transfer student who wanted to know how things worked at Hogwarts. (Entering the Gryffindor dormitories were _even_ _easier,_ since ghosts can walk through walls.)

Nobody expected a Hufflepuff to use the information for evil.

Well, gaining the upper hand in a prank war wasn't technically evil... but Danny still had to fight back the urge to give out a cackling laugh as he looked down on the sleeping forms of Fred and George Weasley.

To attack someone who was sleeping went against the very nature of a prank - the victim needed to be allowed to walk into the trap all on their own.

As such, Danny floated past the slumbering twins and entered their bathroom.

* * *

Danny whistled a happy tune as he followed Ernie and Justin to breakfast.

He was a bit tired, but he could work through that. He'd just need to put a lot of honey (that was _supposed_ to be there for tea) in his morning cereal.

(He really missed the frosted sugar nonsense his dad bought in muggle stores.)

As he slid into his usual seat (it only took half a week for it to become his usual seat) next to Hannah, he looked over the Gryffindor table. No sign of the twins.

Danny's smile widened. He _sure_ hoped they wouldn't miss breakfast trying to undo what he had done...

Nah, he didn't actually want them to miss breakfast. As funny as it was to _imagine_ them freaking out, it would be funnier to see it in person.

"What's up with you today?" Ernie raised single eyebrow.

"I'm sort of in a prank war with the Weasley twins-"

"You're WHAT!?" Ernie looked like he was having a heart attack.

"They started it."

Justin just blinked. Danny waved a hand in front of his face to see if he was still concious. Justin pushed it aside with ill concealed annoyance.

"It's all in good fun." Danny shrugged, a bit worried by their reactions. Fred and George didn't seem like they did any truly malicious pranks.

"With the Weasley twins..."

" _Yes."_

"Danny, you're going to lose."

"Oh yee of little faith." Danny smirked and waved towards the doors, where the aforementioned twins finally had appeared.

Justin and Ernie both turned around in their seats to look.

Neither one could stop themselves from laughing.

Fred and George were currently sporting neon green hair.

"Wha- How-" Justin's eyes were comically wide.

"I put it in their shampoo." Danny said, fighting back his smirk. "I wanted to make something to change their hair into the full rainbow during the day... but as great as I am with dying hair, I'm no good with potions. I was sort of banned from handling glass bottles back at Casper, and that put a wrench in my education. I used one of my parents' inventions instead."

(Controlling his ghostly nature had been difficult the first months.)

Danny went back to his breakfast, unconcerned with the looks he was getting.

(The Weasley twins were getting more looks.)

* * *

Hermione did her best to ignore the Wesley twins as they sat down by the Gryffindor table to eat breakfast.

"But the Fat Lady said she didn't let him in!" George argued loudly enough the Hermione couldn't help but look up and glare at him and his _glowing_ green hair.

"Are you saying he bribed somebody to do it for him?" Fred looked deep in thought.

"I don't think a Gryffindor would side with a Hufflepuff against us..."

"I don't know... loyalty is _their_ thing, not ours."

"That just means we can't use that trick against him."

Hermione went back to her breakfast, concerned with her housemates' plans.

* * *

"Mail's here."

Danny didn't look at the owls. He'd already send Spooky with his mail, and his agreement with his mom meant that the barn owl wouldn't be back just yet.

As such, Danny was woefully unprepared as a big, dark grey owl landed in front of him.

"Oh, she's so pretty. What's her name?" Hannah smiled brightly at the bird.

"Maddie." Danny said the name like a curse.

Vlad's owl glared at Danny as he made no move to remove the offered missive.

(He _almost_ liked Maddie. She wasn't afraid of him. Of course, that was because she'd been around a half-ghost since she'd hatched.)

Danny sighed deeply as he took the letter, if only to be rid of her.

Maddie didn't move.

He offered her a strip of bacon, but she just continued to glare at him.

"Shoo" Danny waved his hand dismissively. "I'm not answering him."

Apparently giving up, Maddie took the bacon and flew away.

Danny eyed the envelope with distaste.

"Are you alright?" Justin looked worried.

"I'm _fine._ "

"See, now we _know_ something's wrong."

Danny ignored the comment, trying to decide what to do with the letter. He could burn it. Or he could send it back unopened, so that Vlad didn't get any ideas about Danny actually reading the thing.

Or he could just read it to make sure it wasn't anything important. For all he knew, the letter was some intricate threat he'd need to deal with.

(That was unlikely. Vlad wouldn't give him _evidence_ of anything...)

"Aren't you gonna open it?" Ernie put down his newspaper.

"Hmmmmmmm..."

"Danny?"

"I'm thinking about it."

"Come on. How bad can it be?"

While Ernie looked curious, Justin and Hannah appeared to be more worried for Danny.

Danny shrugged and ripped the envelope open, not being able to handle the tension anymore.

 _Daniel._

 _I heard from Jack that you were transferred to Hogwarts. It is an internationally renowned school, and being away from your parents will be good for you._

 _Further, he mentioned that you were sorted into Hufflepuff. I am sure you will enjoy living with the other little badgers._

There was more, but Danny saw red. (Green.) His fingers curled around the letter, scrunching it up. He didn't have time to read the rest before letter burst into green flames.

Hannah emptied her pumpkin juice over the burning parchment in Danny's hands.

"Thanks." Danny blinked and he dropped the smoking remains into his cereal. He was way too old for accidental magic. And green fire? What was that?

What was weirder was that, under the ash and soot, Danny was unharmed.

If he'd been home, he would have asked his parents about it. They would calm him down and... ask him to do it again in a controlled environment. Maybe it was for the best that he wasn't home, those types of tests were always boring and his almost unique circumstances meant that there wasn't always a clear-cut answer to what was going on.

(Vlad would probably know how to deal with it. Heck, Vlad probably knew how to channel the weird fire through his wand to shoot at people.)

(Danny would be content with not accidentally setting his things on fire again.)

"No problem." Hannah poured more juice with shaking hands, as if to give herself a distraction.

"I take it back." Ernie's eyes were wide and his tone was very faux-casual. "That was pretty bad."

The remains of Vlad's signature floated in Danny's milk.

* * *

 **AN:** You'll notice that any previous author's notes only mentioned specifics regarding Danny's _ghost_ _form._ Nothing else.


	12. The Past and the Future

**The** **Past** **and** **the** **Future**

Danny flipped through the text-book as the quartet walked towards History of Magic. Hannah started leading him by the arm as he nearly walked into a wall.

"What are you even doing?" Danny assumed Ernie was rolling his eyes at him.

"History back home focused on America. I don't want to make an idiot of myself in class."

Justin started giggling, and was quickly joined in by Hannah.

"What?"

"No, no. Nothing. Just that... Binns..." Ernie struggled with the words, before apparently changing tracks. "There aren't any discussions during class. You'll be fine."

"Oh." Danny closed the book. "Why didn't you just say so?"

This time Danny _saw_ Ernie roll his eyes.

They filed into the classroom and took their seats, Danny picked up his quill and prepared to take notes. He didn't notice that nobody else did.

Danny leaned back in his seat when a chill went down his spine. Then the chill _reversed_ and travelled up again, through his lungs and exiting as a very visible breath of cold air.

A ghost walked through the blackboard and started lecturing about giant wars.

"Oh." Danny couldn't help but let the word pass his lips as he realised what Ernie had been trying to tell him earlier. Professor Binns didn't even _notice_ the students.

"Quiet, Mr Fenton."

OK, so much for _that_ theory.

Every single Hufflepuff turned around to look at Danny.

"Sorry?" He sunk down in his seat, uncomfortable.

Professor Binns droned on.

It felt like forever before the lecture ended. There seemed to be more eyes on Danny than on Binns. He kept his mouth quiet and took notes, which was surprisingly easy considering how Binns spoke in a very monotone voice.

Focusing on a ghost wasn't that hard, the energy that flowed through Danny to send waves of cold down his spine demanded that he paid attention.

Finally, class was dismissed and Danny could get away from the stares of his classmates.

"What was _that?_ " Ernie's eyes were narrowed, his gaze completely focused on Danny.

"I was surprised!" Danny defended himself while gesturing widely. Nothing put him on edge like being stared at. (Names like Freaky Fenton echoed through his head.) "I didn't mean to interrupt class, okay?"

"Not that part."

"Then _what_ is it!?"

Hannah stepped between them, holding up her hands in a pacifying way. "Professor Binns doesn't remember _anybody's_ name. He keeps confusing us for students he had when he was alive."

"Maybe he had someone named Fenton before. Maybe even Binns can't confuse an American for a Brit. How am I supposed to know!?"

Ernie's hand rested on his chin as he thought about it. "I'll look it up. See if Binns has had any Fentons before."

"You do that." Danny's voice was cold. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew what was going on.

After all, focusing on a ghost wasn't that hard.

"In any case, I've got to get to Divination. Laters." Danny waved as he figuratively _and_ literally ran away.

None of his friends took the class, so Danny was alone as he took off in the direction he hoped the tower was in.

It took him a couple of minutes, but he managed to get hopelessly lost.

 _'I don't even know which floor I'm on'._

Danny sighed and looked around. He was completely alone in a corridor without any portraits. Because _of_ _course_ he was.

He couldn't even _hear-_ No, that was wrong. Footsteps echoed from behind him. When he turned around, two students stepped around the corner. Oddly enough, Danny recognized them both.

"Ron!" Danny couldn't help the relieved smile that appeared on his face. "Do you know where the Divination classroom is? I'm lost."

Ron grinned widely under the undivided attention. "Yeah, we were going there. You could join us."

His black-haired companion nodded. "I remember when we first started, got lost all the time."

"Thanks. Jerry, right?"

"Harry."

"Sorry."

"It's fine."

If anything, Harry seemed a little bit pleased with the mix-up. (Maybe he really liked the name Jerry?) Danny decided to not think about it too hard.

"So, you took Divination back in the states?" Ron didn't look like he cared, more like making conversation.

"I guess you could say that. A little bit." Danny thought about his irregular lessons with Work. They had been more about the nature of Time than actually foretelling it. "How is the class in Hogwarts? My teacher gave me a vague warning about it and it seemed like he was having fun at my expense."

Ron and Harry gave each other a look that seemed to hold an entire conversation.

"This teacher of yours can really tell the future?"

"Yes..." Danny side-eyed the two Gryffindors. " _Of_ _course._ Why else would he be teaching Divination?"

The foreboding feeling (that Work claimed wasn't actually a premonition, because Danny wasn't a Seer) was back.

(Danny really wanted to see Work again.)

(How could he be _more_ homesick for a different dimension than for his actual home?)

(Danny's mother had once claimed that Death didn't easily let go. She'd been telling him the Tale of the Three Brothers at the time, and was referring to the use of the Resurrection Stone. Maybe she'd been more right than he'd though.)

The three of them walked into the classroom. The room was a study in mismatching fabrics. Curtains and pillows and a lit fireplace made it too warm. It reminded Danny of the carnival version of future-telling, rather than Work's uncluttered tower room.

Professor Trelawney hid poorly in the shadows behind a curtain. Her eyes widened in surprise behind thick glasses when she saw Danny.

The foreboding feeling increased. (Maybe it deserved capitalisation. The Foreboding Feeling... No, that would give it too much credit. He shouldn't trust it, he wasn't a Seer.)

(By all accounts, neither was his new Divination teacher.)

* * *

Hermione spent her free period in the library.

As such, she noticed Ernie MacMillan, Justin Finch-Fletchey and Hannah Abbott look though old school records.

It didn't take much needling to get them to admit to what they were looking for.

Gossip spread quickly in Hogwarts.

* * *

 **AN** : At this point in the books, the Prophet is spreading mean rumours about Harry. Not being immediately recognized by someone would be refreshing. Danny is sort of an outsider and plenty clueless, he wouldn't have picked up on any of the rumours going around Hogwarts. Conversely, Ron is always looking for recognition. (Especially when Harry isn't getting it.)

Another short (mostly) filler chapter. Sorry about that. I figured I could get away with writing one since reviews don't work right now. As far as this fic goes, it's planned to be 25 chapters.


	13. Exceptions

**Exceptions**

The air grew colder, and the leaves on the trees turned into a spectacle of red and yellow.

Danny was alone as he walked around the lake, taking advantage of a rare respite from rain to spend some time outdoors. The cold didn't bother him, but he didn't want to get drenched all the same. The other Hufflepuffs had retreated inside.

However, it seemed somebody else had the same idea as Danny, because he saw a slim figure walking between the trees of the Forbidden Forest.

Danny paused, before shrugging and following. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

It was hard to keep track of the person, between the trees and all of the rocks and bushes that Danny kept tripping over. Eventually, the person stopped in a clearing, looking like that had been the destination all along.

As Danny caught up, he could finally see the person well enough to recognize her. "Luna Lovegood, right?"

She nodded slowly, sparing Danny only a short glance.

"What are you doing here?"

"Same thing as you, I suppose."

"... No, I don't think that's very likely."

"Oh, well then. I'm here to see the thestrals." Luna smiled, and pulled out a piece of raw meat from her pocket. Danny didn't want to think too hard about that.

The bushes rustled, and one of the skeletal pegasi that pulled the school carriages entered the clearing.

It completely ignored the offered meat and walked up to Danny, rubbing itself against him like a cat.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't normal." Danny awkwardly petted the thestral's head, wishing he attracted unicorns or something instead. Something that wasn't associated with omens of premature death.

 _'What's next, me becoming friends with a grim?'_

"You shouldn't worry too much about what's normal," advised Luna, she dropped the meat to the ground. "You'll miss out if you do."

The thestral finally decided it had enough of Danny, and walked over to eat the raw meat. It was a lot cuter than the books in the library gave it credit for, but that was probably because none of the books made notes on how cuddly it was. That, in turn, was probably because thestrals weren't cuddly with normal people. Luna had a point.

"So if thestrals can only be seen by those who have seen death..." Danny trailed off.

Luna looked at him, her eyes a bit dazed. Her mouth was a sharp line.

"What do you have to do to see nargles?"

Luna smiled.

* * *

The Hufflepuff common room was warmer than usual, lit fires banishing the autumn chill to the outside. Danny and his friends had claimed a group of armchairs next to one of the fireplaces.

Friday afternoon or not, Ernie wanted to get all their homework done and he had steam-rolled the rest of them into agreeing.

(Danny was surprised with the amount of work they had gotten in only three weeks.)

"We'll have the weekend free to spend as we want without worry," preached Ernie.

Justin and Hannah seemed to be used to it.

Danny merely grumbled a bit before pulling up his unfinished Herbology paper. "Okay, so can anyone help me with this?"

Hannah nodded. "If you help me with Astronomy."

"Of course."

"A Hufflepuff who's bad at Herbology. I never though I'd see the day," teased Ernie.

"I was allergic to one of the flowers we had in the greenhouses at Casper. The dizziness made it _kind_ _of_ _hard_ to concentrate." Danny's tone was harsher than he'd intended.

It was enough to make Ernie flinch. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

(At least Hogwarts didn't feel the need to grow blood blossoms. That was probably out of consideration to all the ghosts running round the school, something Casper hadn't been overly concerned with.)

They went back to their homework, Danny allowed himself to get lost in the world of identifying plants from their sap.

That was, until something touched his leg.

Danny looked down to see a brown cat rub against it.

His brain stopped for a second.

(What?)

(Since when...)

(Why-)

 _(What!?)_

Danny blinked, staring at the creature. Was it an animagus? That made sense, right? Animals were afraid of him, but a human turned into an animal wouldn't have the same instincts.

He vaguely remembered that he hadn't been in contact with any cats since his accident. He'd just assumed that they were like any other animal when it came to the whole 'fear of death' thing.

Apparently he'd been wrong.

Unless the cat was an animagus trying to spy on them or something.

He needed to act like a Fenton and test the theory.

Since it was a warm room in Hogwarts, the nearest other cat wasn't far away. Danny didn't bother to explain himself, merely stood up and retrieved it.

It settled into his lap without much fuzz.

Danny's smile was bright enough figuratively blind his friends.

"Erm... What are you doing?" Ernie cast glancing looks at Justin and Hannah, as if requesting back-up.

"Nine lives." Danny smirked, petting the warm ball of fur in his lap. "Cats have nine lives, so they aren't afraid of..."

The other three just gaped at him.

"Oh, you wouldn't understand." Danny shook his head, bringing up fresh parchment instead. "I just realised I need to send a letter."

"To whom?" Ernie seemed more worried than interested.

"Vlad." Danny finished writing.

"Wait, you're sending a letter to _him_ now?" Ernie was shocked and appalled.

"Is that such a good idea?" Justin frowned. "He did send you a letter that caught fire. That's only slightly better than a Howler."

Danny frowned slightly before realising what sort of wrongful conclusion his friends had come to. It _did_ make more sense to blame it on the mail, to think it was some sort of trap. Except, if it had been one, Vlad would have made it activate _after_ Danny had finished reading. (Or before, but not when he was still in the _middle._ )

"I thought you hated that guy?" Hannah joined the chorus, pulling Danny from his musings.

"I do, but that doesn't mean I won't tell him about cats."

"Cats?"

"Cats. They're great. I hadn't noticed before. I'm gonna try to get my parents to get me one for Christmas."

"..This new obsession of yours is going too far."

"Chill, I just told him to get one himself. He could use the company."

"... What exactly did you write?" Ernie's eyes narrowed.

"Just ' _Vlad, get a cat. - Danny_ '"

"It sounds a lot meaner without this weird context." Ernie was back to his normal judgemental tone of voice. At least he didn't sound as worried anymore.

"Yeah, I know." Danny shrugged, not the least bit concerned. "That's on purpose."

Justin seemed to come to a realisation. "You're messing with us."

"Yes." Danny's bluntness didn't garner any response beyond heavy sighs. Not that he _had_ been messing with them (that much in that exact moment), but it would be hard to properly explain his sudden love for cats. Might as well let them believe whatever they wanted to.

"Anyway... I'm going to the Owlery, I think Spooky is still there."

"But we're doing homework."

"That's why I didn't ask you to come with me. I'll be fine." Danny waved them off with a smile. "It's not like it's a classroom or something inside the castle, I won't get lost. Bye~"

Danny put down the cat and happily skipped out of the common room.

The winding corridors of Hogwarts were mostly abandoned. It wasn't that late, but there was little reason for anyone to be out and about between classes and dinner.

As such, Danny let his guard down, which was why he ended up running into somebody when he turned a sharp corner.

* * *

Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington was many things, but first among them he was a ghost. (Pre-mortem, he'd firstly been a lover of fine pies. Post-mortem, he was unable to actually eat.)

As a ghost, he didn't usually bother paying attention to where he was going. He'd just pass through any offending item or person.

As such, he naturally assumed that the one he'd bumped into was another ghost.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Here, let me..." Nick trailed off and froze, his hand still offered, as he realised what he was looking at.

"It was my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going."

The human (human!) in front of him must have been dazed enough to not understand what exactly had happened, because he took the offered hand. To Nick's continued surprise, the boy grasped it firmly and pulled himself to his feet. (How was that even possible?)

"You've got really cold hands..." The Hufflepuff boy muttered before he _finally_ looked up.

The boy's eyes widened, to nearly comical levels. He pulled his hand away, as if burned. (Not as if he'd plunged it into a bucket of cold water and then tried to use said water to haul himself to his feet. One was not generally able to grasp liquid like that.)

Nicholas pulled himself together long enough to notice how uncomfortable the Hufflepuff was. If anything, he looked like he was deciding whether to make a run for it or not.

"It's quite alright." Nick smiled as he replied to the earlier apology. "It's not every day somebody manages to run into me like that. I'm Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, the Gryffindor House Ghost, at your service."

"Danny Fenton." The words were mumbled, like he was hoping Nick wouldn't hear them but too polite to deny him an answer.

Danny's eyes were darting around, he was likely checking to see if anybody had noticed the event. He relaxed slightly when he realised that the two of them were alone in the corridor.

"Would you explain to me exactly _how_ -"

Danny shook his head, his mouth opening and closing without making any sound.

Nick scrutinized the boy. There was something about Danny. Something that made him stand out against the backdrop, in a way only other ghosts ever did. He felt like silver and cold and memories of a blunt axe. (But still warm with life, and wasn't _that_ the contradiction of the century?) It was a feeling that was easy to overlook, but now that he had noticed it... Death called to death, and Nick couldn't shake the idea even as he saw someone undeniably human.

"Please don't tell anyone."

Before Nick could reply, Danny ran away.

* * *

 **AN:** Oh, Danny. You really think a Hogwarts ghost will keep something like this secret from the Headmaster? You silly goose.

 **Re:** **SpiderPhantom** : The reason Danny doesn't remember who Harry is is a combination of him not remembering the name and him not even _considering_ that Harry Potter would be someone his age who goes to his school. It's a name he read in a history book, not something he connects to his own, real life.


	14. The Boy Who Died

**The Boy Who Died**

He shouldn't have told that ghost his name.

He _really_ shouldn't have told that ghost his name.

Danny had panicked. He'd walked into a ghost and then he'd freaked out instead of doing proper damage control.

Not that there had been any _real_ way to control the damage at that point. Even if he hadn't said his name, he would have been easy to find among the students. (How many new fifth year Hufflepuffs were there? Oh, right, _one.)_

Danny still wished he hadn't told Sir Nicholas his name.

He spent the next day wound up like a spring, which his friends noticed. They tried to distract him with wizard chess, but Danny had never enjoyed the game. (Vlad had made his initial dislike worse, because adding Vlad to anything always made it worse.)

Danny was jittery and unfocused, paying more attention to school gossip than ever before. (No rumours going around about ghosts, but plenty were about Voldemort's return. Danny found himself with a slightly better understanding of the political landscape, but was too worried about his own situation to care.)

He almost wished it wasn't a Saturday, because school would have distracted him... Maybe. Or maybe he just wouldn't have been able to focus on class. (That seemed more likely.)

It almost came as a relief when Professor Sprout entered the common room to tell him he'd been summoned to the Headmaster's office. It was obviously related. Frankly, it was better to get it over with and deal with the consequences, rather than to continue to live with the tension of not knowing what would happen.

Danny was still in a daze as he walked to Dumbledore's office. He was relieved that Professor Sprout walked him there, because otherwise he would have definitely gotten lost. The Herbology teacher seemed to have picked up on his mood.

"I'm sure you're not in trouble."

Danny didn't say anything in reply. His mouth was dry.

Before he knew it, Professor Sprout told the gargoyle the password and left him at the bottom of the stairs. He almost wished she'd stayed. (But not really, the only way to do any type of damage control was to limit his exposure.)

As such, nobody could see how his hand shook as he knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Compared to the last time Danny had been in Dumbledore's office, the room felt bigger. The lack of all four Heads of Houses also meant he could see a lot more interesting things lying about.

Like a stone Pensieve filled with silvery memories, or a red and gold phoenix sitting on a perch.

The phoenix looked at the boy.

The boy looked at the phoenix.

Somehow, he hadn't expected it to look so... judgmental.

 _'Oh, Mr High-and-Mighty, like_ you've _never died before.'_

The phoenix cooed lightly and looked away.

Professor Dumbledore watched the interaction with ill-concealed interest. When he noticed that Danny was looking at him, rather than the bird, he gestured towards a chair.

"Do sit down. Lemon drop?"

Danny took the offered seat and candy, hoping that it would help against the dryness in his mouth. (It didn't. It merely sat on his tongue like a sour little pebble in a desert. His tongue curled around it.)

"How do you find Hogwarts, Mr Fenton? Are you growing accustomed to-"

"Can we please just skip the small talk? We both know why I'm here... I think. Unless I'm _really_ here to talk about my transfer?"

"No, I suppose you're not." Dumbledore sighed deeply, shaking his head. "You've realised by now that Nick told me about your meeting?" Danny must have made a face, because Dumbledore quickly added "Don't worry. He hasn't told anyone else, but as a school ghost he reports directly to me on these sort of matters. I asked him to keep quiet."

"And what sort of matters is that, sir?"

(Faking casualness had never been Danny's forte, but he was willing to try.)

"The safety of the students, of course."

"I'm not a danger to anyone," huffed Danny, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I was more concerned about _your_ safety."

"Oh." Danny blinked. Well, that was new _._

"Is this related to last year, when your parents opened a gateway into the land of the dead in your basement?"

Danny didn't say anything, but his breath hitched in a way that the Headmaster probably heard. (Dumbledore wasn't supposed to know about that! How did he know about that!?)

"I'm no expert, but that sort of spell would usually require a human sacrifice."

"They didn't! They were working on getting around that!" Danny couldn't suppress the flash of anger at the implied accusation.

"I assumed as much. Otherwise they would not simply have been exiled." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "They 'were' working on getting around that?"

Danny felt his face grow hot as he realised that he'd said more than he should have. Well, in for a knut, in for a galleon...

"I _might_ have accidentally set off the experiment before it was complete. The part that used a sacrifice was... only halfway done. There were some _side-effects."_

"That is why you can touch ghosts."

Danny nodded. "I only _almost_ died and it was an _accident_. That's sorta why the government couldn't make up their minds about whether it counted as dark magic or not. It took so long for them to decide, the public was began to question them... Things got _wild._ Everyone accused _everyone_ of practising Dark Arts, because if the friendly couple next door could secretly be 'Dark'... Eventually the Aurors decided the whole affair was an embarrassment and threw us out so they wouldn't have to think about it anymore."

Of course, the story he'd repeated was the one believed by the American government... and it was better if Dumbledore thought the same things – Especially since the way that story played out left Danny as just a human. Perhaps not necessarily normal, but 100% a living human being.

Saying stuff like _'Oh, yeah, I_ was _dying. My ghost was forming and everything, but the whole thing stopped halfway through so now I'm half-ghost'_ would bring nothing but problems.

(He could still remember how his friends and family had reacted as it became obvious "nearly" dying had changed him.)

(Tucker had seemed to think it was mostly just cool.)

(Sam hadn't been able look him in the eyes since the Accident. Even though he'd _told_ her repeatedly that he didn't blame her. The way she acted around his parents, it seemed like she couldn't make up her mind whether _she_ blamed _them_ or if she was afraid _they_ blamed _her._ It was awkward.)

(Jazz had gone into psychotherapist mode, running herself ragged in trying to help everyone.)

(His parents had at first tried to 'fix him', to both assuage their guilt and appease their curiosity. It took them little over one month to give up.)

(Danny had been the only one who was happy when they finally stopped.)

(Well, and maybe Jazz, who had claimed it was bad for his mental health for them to try to change what he was.)

"One can't help but wonder... if there were any _other_ side-effects from the experience..." Dumbledore's piercing eyes met Danny's.

Danny broke eye contact as he felt the (rather light) assault on his mental shields.

"You know, where _I_ come from it's considered rude to use Legilimency on people." He couldn't help voicing the accusation from between clenched teeth. (Making a person who almost knew his secret angry wasn't a good idea, but as usual his mouth had a mind of its own.)

"You're right, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have." Dumbledore sounded very old, his tone matching his white beard.

Danny nodded mutely, not trusting himself to not blow up at the man if he tried to speak. (Calm yourself, Fenton.) (It's easier to ask people for favours when they aren't angry at you.)

"Erm, Professor Dumbledore... Please don't tell anyone about this."

"Indeed, this is the sort of thing that could get you into trouble. For instance, our new Defence Professor loathes anything she considers to be 'not human'."

(Danny was briefly reminded of a certain werewolf who only spoke Esperanto.)

"But I _am_ human. I'm just able to interact with ghosts," Danny gently reminded, shrugging to seem more casual and make the lie more believable. Somehow, it felt like the comment had been a test of sorts. "It's like being a parselmouth or something."

"True, but Professor Umbridge draws different lines between who's human and not than you or I might do."

(Danny got the impression Dumbledore and he were on the same page when it came to werewolf rights.)

"It's just a weird ability, it's not like..." Danny struggled to find words for his lie that didn't include _'it's not like I can turn into a ghost'_.

Dumbledore patiently waited for him to finish.

"I'm more worried I'll get harassed by ghosts," he finally concluded, changing the subject with less subtlety than a charging dragon.

Dumbledore nodded gravely.

"Well, if there's nothing else..." Danny stood up.

"No, no. You're free to go. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Mr Fenton."

* * *

 **AN** : ...And that's why the Fentons had to move. This comes across as a bigger reveal than originally intended, considering how it's implied in the fic's (old) summary... I'm sorry if things got anti-climatic because of that, but I hadn't really planned for this to be secret in the first place. I just couldn't find any place to put this information before now.


	15. Airborne

**AN:** This is the **second** chapter I've uploaded this week, so if you missed **chapter** **14** **( _The_** **_Boy_** **_Who_** **_Died_ )** you'llwant to go back and **read** **that** **first!** It pretty much explains Danny's entire deal.

* * *

 **Airborne**

The Quidditch pitch was quiet and empty in the cold of the morning. Dew clung to the bottom of Danny's pants and he yawned loudly.

Autumn had taken hold of Hogwarts. The surrounding forest had dyed itself in yellows and reds. The rain Danny had jokingly said he missed when he first moved to Britain had made its appearance at last.

More importantly, the fourth week of school brought Quidditch try-outs. Danny didn't try to hide his excitement. (Maybe he just wanted to get his mind off all the things that were going on. Part of him was still afraid that Sir Nicholas would tell the other ghosts about Danny.)

Justin didn't seem concerned about the drizzle. He was walking next to Danny with his broom slung over his shoulder.

Ernie would have complained even if the weather was nice. He'd started with whining about the rain and continued to talk how Quidditch was a waste of time. However, he was still _there_ and he took a place in the stands to look at the try-outs next to Hannah.

"So, have you played a lot before? I thought Quidditch wasn't that big overseas." Justin shifted his feet around.

"It isn't. Quodpot is the big thing back home, but I'm not really built for a game with tackling..." Danny frowned as he remembered his few attempts to get on the team. That had _not_ gone well, mostly because every single player (no matter which team they were on) had decided to target Danny (at Dash's behest, no doubt). "Not to mention the explosions. No matter what people say about me, I don't _like_ getting blown up."

Justin laughed, but his nervousness shone through.

"It'll be okay. You're trying out for chaser, right? I'm going for seeker, myself." Danny smiled. Being quick and nimble was more his thing, no tackling involved.

"Yeah, but I'm not very good."

"You'll do fine."

* * *

Justin wasn't doing fine, but Danny hardly noticed it.

He was distracted by the flying.

To Danny, flying through the air was more natural than breathing. (He'd read somewhere that you couldn't actually forget to breathe, but he figured that if anyone managed it, it would be him.)

The shell of clumsy Fenton fell away as gravity stopped pulling him down, and he was free. He finally felt _right_ again.

But not truly, like the entire experience was just a bland copy of the real thing. All the tiny details were off. The broom was limiting, compared to flying as a ghost. The air blowing on his face tasted wrong, in a way that was hard to describe. He tasted his lips. The air was too... clean? Was that the problem? The distinct undertone of forest was definitely not right, that much he was sure of. Maybe it would be better to be flying over a city. Like London. He should fly to London... and if he was already in London it wouldn't be out of his way to go through the Veil again...

Danny shook his head, violently, willing himself to focus on the present situation. He couldn't just enter the Realms whenever he wanted anymore, what with being stuck in Scotland and all. It wasn't like he needed to go there, right? (A part of Danny screamed that the answer to the question was undeniably " _yes_ ".)

Maybe joining the Quidditch team was a bad idea, if it made him think of the Realms.

Before he could dwell on it further, the try-outs began in earnest as the Bludgers were released.

Why dodging the quick, small Bludgers was _easier_ than the slow, big burly guys on the Quadpot team... Well, Danny wasn't sure why, but he was still grateful for it.

(Maybe it was just because there were only _two_ Bludgers, which was much easier to keep track of...)

Danny pulled at his broom, climbing in the air until he had a good view of the entire field. By then the team's Captain should have released the snitch.

There was no hint of gold anywhere.

Danny's old broom, which he hadn't bothered to replace since the Accident, protested as he spun around.

He had forgotten how limiting a broom was. On the trip from America, he hadn't bothered with any fancy manoeuvres...

(Well, there was no time like the present.)

Danny stretched out a bit, before leaning on the broom and pulling himself into a wide downwards spiralling route, checking for the Golden Snitch as he flew.

He'd need to show off his flying skills, if he wanted to make the team... But what sort of thing should he do? (What _could_ he do to show off without looking like a show-off?) It vaguely reminded him of the ridiculous moves he, Sam and Tucker had practised two summers ago.

(It had turned out that a bunch of thirteen year olds weren't capable of inventing new manoeuvres on their own, but it had still been fun.)

As it happened, opportunity to show off arose all on its own.

A Bludger came out of nowhere, startling Danny, causing him to act purely on instinct.

Sometimes, being living ghost brought contradictory instincts. The ghost in Danny _knew_ it didn't need to obey gravity or inertia if it didn't want to.

Danny dodged to the side, entering something of a roll.

It would have been an impressive manoeuvre, if not for one small thing.

The human in Danny was of a differing opinion on the whole _laws_ _of_ _physics_ thing.

He had dodged to the side, but rather than follow the motion through he hesitated and tried to pull back. While in the middle of a spin.

Danny overbalanced on the old broom, almost sliding off it. The Bludger turned in the air, changing its trajectory to attack Danny again.

He gripped the handle of his broomstick as hard as he could, trying to pull it back to equilibrium.

He failed.

Danny could feel the Bludger hitting his ribs, knocking the air from his lungs.

His broom spun around from the force of the impact, and Danny was to dazed and distracted to pull it to a stop. He lost his grip and could feel the air rushing around him as he started to fall.

Danny hit the ground with a loud thud.

Pain blossomed in his back, but it was dull. He could ignore it. He could ignore _everything._

People around him were shouting, it was hard to make out the words. Easy to ignore.

The world faded to black.

* * *

 _Danny's parents lab was dark and empty. The basement window let in some moonlight, which was enough for Danny to find and flip the switch._

 _Runes drawn in the floor glowed silver before he turned on the magical lights his father had invented one day when he was bored. Like most things Jack Fenton created, the bulbs glowed somewhere between pure white and bright green depending on whether the date was an odd or even number._

 _That day they were green. He should have taken that as an omen._

 _Sam and Tucker filed in after Danny, looking at everything with wide eyes._

 _Danny had to admit that the unfinished experiment_ looked _interesting at first glance. However, the impressiveness of the metal arch was somewhat diminished by the yellow and black warning colours it was painted in._

 _Sam grinned and pulled up her camera. "Hey, Danny. Go stand in the arch."_

 _Danny looked at the arch. "I don't know, Sam."_

" _Come on. You said it didn't work, right?"_

" _Right."_

 _He took careful steps to not smudge the writing as he walked towards the experiment._

 _That worked fine, until he tripped. His hand touched down on the silvery writing, a white light exploded inside his eyelids and all Danny knew was pain._

 _Somebody was screaming. He tried to focus on the voices, but the pain was too distracting._

 _Heavy steps pounded down the stairs. His dad. Slightly lighter footfalls followed. Mom._

'Mom. She'll kill me for messing with the experiment.'

 _The thought didn't distress him as much as he'd expected. Actually, it was kind of funny. Danny giggled, but the movement through his chest sent fresh waves of pain through him._

'I'm dying.'


	16. Visitors

**Visitors**

Danny woke up in the hospital wing.

Considering his dreams, it was nice to realise that he wasn't _actually_ dying. (Again.)

He sat up carefully, still slightly aching from the butchered landing. (If he could call it that. Still, 'butchered landing' flowed better than 'hitting the ground at high downwards velocity'.)

Danny breathed slowly as he concentrated on feeling himself for injuries. He was happy to conclude that aside from a piercing headache and a soreness in his chest, he was fine.

(Or at least as fine as one could get when technically dead.)

The nurse, Madam Pomfrey, must have heard him move because she entered the room and started talking loudly (not yelling) at him about staying still when he was injured and how he'd broken bones and bruised himself and-

Danny stopped listening halfway through. If there was one thing the tirade taught him, it was that he hadn't been bleeding.

That was what was important.

If he'd started to bleed, somebody would have noticed the silvery drops in Danny's blood. (The same type of silvery stains that covered the Bloody Baron. The same type of silvery liquid that his parents had used to write runes on their kind-of-failed experiment.)

(You know, ghost blood.)

Madam Pomfrey sighed after a while, giving the impression of a long-suffering woman, before giving Danny a foul smelling potion to drink, reminding him vaguely of his mother. Every time he'd gotten sick or hurt during his childhood, she'd made him drink something. (Even _that_ time. Maybe she hadn't been able to think up anything else, or maybe she'd hoped against all common sense that one of the standard potions they always had on hand would cure _death_.)

Even if he hadn't needed a potion, she'd at least give him some water. Water seemed to be her go to solution for most pains, from fevers to sadness.

(Oddly enough, it worked on the latter. Drinking a glass of water was just distracting enough to let him pull himself together when he was crying.)

 _Drink_ _this,_ _you'll_ _feel_ _better._ That was their motto.

The memory made him feel warm inside. Or maybe that was the potion doing its work.

Madam Pomfrey ordered him to _sit_ _still_ in a tone that allowed no argument,before leaving him alone while mumbling something about his temperature.

(Danny thought it was ridiculous, since he felt fine enough to go to class. Madam Pomfrey evidently disagreed.)

At least Danny wasn't alone for long.

Unsurprisingly, a trio of Hufflepuffs joined him around (he assumed from looking at the sun) lunch time.

"Danny!" Justin's eyes were wide, like he'd never expected to see Danny again or something. "You're alright!"

Danny nodded, and opened his mouth to answer when Justin continued talking.

"We were so worried! When you fell and no one could catch you and Hannah tried a cushioning charm but she missed and you looked so pale and I thought you were dead and-"

Danny blinked, trying to keep up with the flow conversation.

"Are you alright?" Hannah broke in, saving Danny from deciphering Justin's rambles.

"Yeah, all fixed up." Danny smiled, hoping to ease any fears.

"Good," Ernie's voice was more pompous than usual, as if that would hide his emotions. "Of course, _I_ knew that you would be alright. Madam Pomfrey is one of the best Healers in Europe, but _these_ _two_ wanted to check onyou as soon as we could."

Danny politely pretended to believe Ernie as the boy lied about not being worried.

(Hufflepuffs made poor liars.)

Justin sighed deeply, as if preparing himself to deliver bad news. Danny couldn't help but tense in response.

"Summerby became Seeker."

Danny blinked. Blinked again. Shrugged. "Well, of course he did. _He_ didn't get hurt trying to perform a basic manoeuvre. How did you do?"

"I didn't make it either."

Danny shrugged again, his casualness not as forced as he would have feared beforehand. Quidditch had mostly been an excuse to go flying, but somewhere along the line he'd hoped...

Well, he couldn't exactly expect to get a place on the team when he couldn't even dodge a Bludger properly.

* * *

His second group of visitors were rather more unexpected.

Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, both of whom he'd spoken to only a couple of times since he'd eaten the Start-of-Term Feast he'd eaten at Gryffindor's table, was dragged in by a girl he vaguely remembered from said feast. (Hermione Granger? Yeah, that sounded right.)

"You missed Ancient Runes," was her inelegant ice-breaker, accompanied by handing him a long parchment.

"Wow, thanks, _homework._ Just what I've always wanted."

"I told you," mumbled Ron with as much tact as a brick to the face.

Hermione looked a bit put off.

"Seriously though, thanks." Danny smiled to let them know he'd been joking with his earlier comment.

Hermione looked at him closely before speaking again. "Do you know why Professor Binns knows your name? I swear I recognize it from somewhere..."

(Brick to the face, meet your new friend boulder to the chest.)

"Not really." The answer was too quick to be believable, but Danny hadn't expected _that_ question to pop up.

(Oh, why did Hufflepuffs have to be such poor liars?)

Hermione narrowed her eyes, but dropped the subject.

* * *

At least visitor group number three were people he was comfortable talking to.

Fred and George Weasley, for once without Lee Jordan, gave him some non-homemade candy that didn't turn anyone into a bird or gave them a noose-bleed or anything interesting at all except maybe a sugar rush.

"We're gonna have to cancel our prank war," said Fred as he sat down on the empty bed next to Danny's.

"What!? Why!? You're not giving up, are you?"

George shook his head and answered with what seemed like a non sequitur. "How's Defence lessons for the Hufflepuffs?"

"Boring. We read from the book and learn absolutely nothing. Why?"

"It's... not exactly like that for the Gryffindors," answered Fred.

"You lost me."

"Umbridge is pretty liberal with handing out detentions, and..." George trailed off, frowning.

"Let's just say that we will be focusing our energy on her, and it wouldn't be fair to you to face us when we're not using our best ideas," finished Fred.

"Is there something about Umbridge that I need to know?"

The twins looked at each other and shrugged in tandem.

"She's got detention and _literal_ _torture_ mixed up," began Fred.

"-and she's working to keep any word about You-Know-Who quiet," finished George.

The foreboding feeling in Danny's gut was back.

"Okay... If you need my help with anything, let me know. That trick I used to get into your bathroom should work just as well on Umbridge's office."

"Any chance of you telling us how you did that, now that we've called a truce?"

"None at all."

* * *

Danny probably _shouldn't_ have been surprised by his last visitor, but he was.

"Hello again, Sir Nicholas."

(Danny was immensely thankful that Hermione wasn't there, explaining away a second ghost taking an interest in him was beyond Danny's non-existent lying skills.)

The ghost inclined his head, which wobbled slightly as if almost falling off his shoulders. He steadied it with one of his hands, making the motion look like he had reaching for his hat.

"And a good day to you, Danny."

They stroke up an uneasy conversation after that, both skirting around their last encounter.

"Listen, Danny, I'm terribly sorry for-"

"It's fine. I understand." Danny shrugged and looked away from Nicholas, not wanting to meet his eyes.

After that things got a little less stilted.

* * *

At dinner, Madam Pomfrey finally let Danny go. She'd still seemed concerned about how cold he'd been, forcing him to drink a potion that made steam come out of his ears and made his chest burn for the rest of the evening, but it was worth it to be free to leave the stuffy smell of hospital behind him.

* * *

 **AN** : The "drink water if sad"-thing is something my dad does. It totally works.


	17. Problem Solving

**Problem Solving**

Hermione put down a pile of books at the table, not bothering to hide her frown.

She was _sure_ she'd read the name Fenton somewhere, and with the way Binns had acted it had to be related to...

There!

The library was quiet and nearly empty, save for the Gryffindor trio, Ernie Macmillan who sat alone reading in a corner, and a couple of Ravenclaws that seemed to be debating in hushed whispers the correct way to cut gillyweed. They had a mountain or books for reference that they were pointing at in dramatic motions, but they didn't seem to make any progress.

"I found it."

Harry looked up at her, confused but interested. Ron on the other hand seemed thankful for any excuse to stop studying.

"You found _what,_ exactly?"

"The reason Professor Binns knows the name 'Fenton'."

Hermione turned around the old history book, letting Harry and Ron read it.

"Witch hunting in America?"

"Yes! Danny Fenton is descended from one of the most famous witch hunters of all time, John Fenton-Nightingale! Aside from witch hunting, he was the first person to find a way to _hurt_ _ghosts._ Even wizards didn't know about that use of blood blossoms before that."

Ron rolled his eyes. "No _wonder_ the bloke tries to pretend he doesn't know what Binns' deal is."

Harry nodded. "Let's get back to the _real_ problem this year, Umbridge."

"Well," Hermione closed the book. "I had some ideas about that too..."

* * *

They made their way to the Room of Requirement in silence, but Justin and Hannah were giddy with excitement. Ernie had taken on a deep seriousness, worrying more about the consequences than the rest of them. (Ernie probably felt responsible, since it had been his idea to join in the first place. He'd apparently overheard a conversation in the library, which was why they'd ended up "invited" into the club.)

Ernie and Hannah may have sworn up and down that their interest in "Dumbledore's Army" was purely because they wanted to pass their O.W.L.s, but Danny could tell that they were at least a little excited for an opportunity to break the rules with a clear conscience.

Danny was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. The Hogsmeade meeting had been interesting, but it showed how little the general population of Hogwarts knew about sneaking around. Umbridge had apparently found out about it right away, disbanding all clubs as a reaction.

If he got kicked out of Hogwarts, would his parents let him go back to Casper?

Did he even want that anymore?

As weird as it was, in the mere months he had spent at Hogwarts he'd somehow gotten more friends than during all of his years at Casper. While he wasn't as close to the Brits as he was to Sam and Tucker, the fact remained that he had a _lot_ more friends. And no bullies that focused all of their energy on him.

(It probably helped his parents weren't locally famous, so nobody had been warned to stay away from 'the Fenton boy'.)

Besides, if his parents let him return to Amity Park, they would probably make him stay with Vlad or something. (Even though Tucker existed and was a perfectly good alternative.)

Danny pushed aside his worries as they entered the Room of Requirement for the first time.

He surveyed it like a seasoned solider. Fairly large, no alternative exits. (Escape would be done through use of intangibility, then.)

There are a few practice dummies by the far wall, bookcases by the near.

It really seemed like the perfect place to practice Defence.

There was a fireplace, but it likely not connected to the Floo network. (How could it be, when the room didn't officially exist?)

Still, it gave Danny an idea. There was bound to be rooms in Hogwarts with connected fireplaces. As a ghost, he could easily break into one of them without being noticed. He could steal a bit of Floo powder and go to London.

Harry got them started on some simple spells, to check how much everyone already knew.

It quickly became apparent that having one competent teacher during his _entire_ education gave Danny something of an advantage over the rest of the club.

Danny fired off a stunning spell towards the puppet, hitting it in the center.

"You're really good at that." Ernie had a 'casual' air about him, that made it obvious he wasn't feeling casual at all. Was he looking for tips or something?

"Well, it's easy to hit a stationary target. This is nothing like playing Dodge Blast."

"Dodge blast?" He tumbled over the words, as if they were unfamiliar to him.

"Yeah, you know, _dodge_ _blast_."

"That explains absolutely nothing."

"You divide into teams and try to hit each other with harmless beams of light. If you're hit you're out. The team that's last standing wins."

"And you played that... often?"

"Mrs. Tetslaff's favourite way to end class... Come to think of it, we should practice dodging. It's what keeps you alive in a real fight."

"I guess." Ernie's eyes narrowed towards his target, and he fired an Expelliarmus at it. He missed by so much that he hit Danny's dummy.

Danny refrained from laughing, but it took all his self-control to do so.

He fired another stunner, hitting dead-center again.

Ernie was looking really irritated.

Danny shrugged and fired again, not even bothering to look at the practice dummy.

Judging by Ernie's expression, it was another hit.

Danny grinned.

Firing blasts towards the dummies got old quickly, considering how he had something like a 85% hit rate.

(After a while he started counting, which was a testament to how boring it got.)

(Of course, since most of the others were struggling it was probably for the best that they were still practising.)

Maybe he could work on getting that weird green fire into a blast?

Sure, he didn't know if it would actually _work_ , but it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out – nobody would get hurt from him flinging weird fire at a practice dummy. Especially since the incident with the letter proved that it was easily put out with a bit of water (or pumpkin juice, as it were.)

If he managed to do it, it would be a non-verbal "spell". That, if nothing else, would make it useful.

(Not that he was planning on running around setting people on fire, but you never knew...)

He focused on the sense of cold in his chest, but didn't bring it forth. (Suddenly dropping dead while surrounded by people was... ill advised.) He needed to _channel_ the energy somehow, to link it directly into his wand and out into the world.

Danny exhaled slowly, focusing, before pointing his wand and _letting go._

Nothing happened.

Okay, so he'd obviously done something wrong. That was fine. Expected even, on his first try. Nothing to get himself worked up about... or was it? The last time the green fire had happened, it had been because he had been angry. Maybe he needed to mirror that state of mind.

Anger...

Danny could do anger.

Time to think about Vlad.

Danny ignored the rest of the room, closing his eyes and letting himself get lost in the memories.

 _("Your oaf of an father...")_

Remembering how Vlad had tried to kill Danny's dad, as revenge over an _accident_ that happened 20 years ago.

 _("I can't believe you still trust them, after what they did to you...")_

Remembering how Vlad tried to get Danny to "join him".

 _("It's their fault you're cursed to live like this!")_

 _'Shut up, Fruitloop!'_

The chill in his chest lurched, like a nauseous stomach.

The tips of his fingers were starting to feel cold.

Danny pointed his wand, and the power _surged_.

When he opened his eyes, the test dummy was covered in ice.

 _'That's... not green fire.'_

It was at that point that Danny realised that if he _had_ succeeded, the blast might have looked an awful lot like the killing spell. A non-verbal "killing spell" which produced green fire, so it would soon be apparent that it _wasn't_ one, but still close enough at first glance that he might have upset a lot of people.

"How did you _do_ that?" Ernie was looking at him with wide eyes, apparently having seen the whole thing.

Danny blushed, one hand scratching the back of his neck. "I just... tried something new... It's based on stuff I learned back home, you wouldn't get it."

A nonverbal ice spell was obviously a big enough deal as it was.

* * *

 **AN:** Just in case you've suppressed your memories of the entire third season, John Fenton-Nightingale is from the episode _Infinite Realms_.

Writer's block came at me **hard** during this chapter, which is why I didn't publish anything last week. I ended up mashing chapter 17 together with the planned chapter 18. (Mostly because the parts I had originally planned to be here were much shorter than I'd thought.)

The next chapter is going to be plot-heavy and emotional and derived solely from the logic behind a single word-choice in _Harry_ _Potter_ and how that relates to creative choices in _Danny_ _Phantom_ , which is what makes this type of crossover+fusion fic combination **fun.** At least for me. I've tried to foreshadow what I'm planning, but not to the degree where I'm expecting you lovelies to have reacted to it... Let's just say at next week some of the changes I've made from DP canon will be explained.


	18. Revelations

**Revelations**

"How did you do it?"

Ernie was by nature an annoying person. He was pompous and full of himself, as well as pretentious. Danny had gotten used to those particular flaws, accepted them and moved on.

However, the endless questions were beginning to grate on his nerves.

Gossip about Danny's non-verbal ice trick had spread around school, courtesy of the DA. Danny had 'explained' it the same way every single time.

"I told you, I said the spell really softly. You just didn't hear it."

Most people had bought that excuse.

Ernie Macmillan wasn't most people.

"So what's the spell, then?"

"Huh?"

"What is the incantation you used?"

Before that conversation, Danny wouldn't have listed Ernie's intelligence as one of his biggest flaws.

(What's he supposed to say? "I'm not fully human, I sort of half-died in an accident two years ago." Yeah, not happening.)

They were sitting in the common room, in their usual semi-secluded corner. Hannah and Justin were following the conversation with baited breath, and more than one person was probably listening in on them.

Still, it seemed like Danny had no choice but to seem like a huge jerk.

"Maybe I don't _want_ to tell you."

Ernie's hands curled in his lap. His jaw was tense and his glare didn't leave Danny's. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's a personal experiment and I don't want anyone else trying it until I'm sure I've gotten it to work." Time for a little misdirection. "Considering _your_ aim, I especially don't want to teach you how to encase things in blocks of ice. I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting sent to Madam Pomfrey's to be thawed out."

Danny crushed his guilt, with limited success, as Ernie's expression changed from anger to hurt.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"But you did."

Danny stood up, gathering his things. He didn't look at Justin and Hannah, didn't try to see what they thought of the conversation, keeping his eyes on the floor. "Yeah. Sorry."

They didn't speak to each other for the rest of the day.

* * *

Maybe Danny was just trying to focus on something else (anything else) besides his fight with Ernie, but he decided to go through with his planned little trip to London. Despite Christmas approaching, and the fact that he would be able to visit as he wanted during the holidays, he couldn't help himself. He needed to see his friends in the Realms.

The hallways in Hogwarts were empty and dark, students and teachers alike had gone to bed hours ago. Danny was a ghost.

Umbridge's office, selected due to her choice in décor (cat pictures can't gossip, unlike portraits) was easily broken into. Nobody ever thought to protect themselves against ghostly thieves. It was almost like normal ghosts couldn't steal or something.

Danny let himself come back to life, taking a pinch of Floo powder.

"The Ministry of Magic."

The Ministry was abandoned, the golden gates that separated the many fireplaces from the actual Ministry were closed.

Danny stepped through them all the same.

(Danny reminded himself that just because the main entrance was closed, it didn't mean that there weren't people about. There were probably a lot of other ways to get into the Ministry, if you worked there and needed to know how.)

He didn't bother turning back into a human on the other side, using his intangibility to fall through the floor. He didn't want to check whether the elevators were working.

The corridors leading to the Department of Mysteries were desolate and scary. Like being in a horror story.

As a ghost, it felt suitable.

Danny entered the round entrance into the Department. His plan was clear, he'd walk through the Veil – spend some time with his ghostly friends, and when he came back he'd go into the Time Room. He'd borrow a Time-Turner, go back to the start of the evening and slip back into Hogwarts without anybody having the chance of noticing his absence.

The round room spun around him and he smiled. "The Death Chamber, please."

The Department of Mysteries had been the site of many a magical experiment, to the point where Danny suspected it had gained some kind of intelligence. Or maybe it was a simple spell that made the room answer the requests of those who had the right to be there. As a sort-of-intern, Danny had the right to be there.

The room stopped, the door Danny was looking for placed in front of him.

The Death Chamber, the amphitheatre in its full dusty glory, looked different from the last time he'd been there.

The image arch housing the Veil, once nothing but crumbling stone, was marred by the presence of a blast shield covering the floating fabric.

The yellow and black metal stood out like a sore thumb against the ancient elegance of the rest of the room. Danny's parents had installed their own, personal safety features.

Maybe it was because they had built their own portal in their basement, in a house filled with teenagers... Maybe they felt guilty over Danny's accident and were overcompensating... In any case, they took safety features around the portal _really_ seriously.

At least nobody would trip, fall into the Veil and consequently die.

Danny shook his head at the thought, the only one in his family who was clumsy enough to do something like that was Danny himself – and he could survive such an ordeal.

As silently as he could, he walked over to the blast doors and told them the password to open them. (The same password they had used on their Veil back home.)

"Open sesame."

* * *

Danny gave a satisfied sigh. Talking to Johnny, the dead muggle biker, had been just what he'd needed.

Not that Johnny had been able to give him any tips on saving his friendship with Ernie, Johnny was surprisingly horrible at relationships of any kind, but because Danny had been able to wind down a bit. If there was one thing Johnny was good at, it was letting go and living (Unliving? Dying? _Existing_.) in the present.

The energy of the Infinite Realms was helping, of course. Danny could feel his cold centre soaking it up like a snake in sunshine. (If he let himself think about it, he was vaguely horrified by it. He tended to avoid thinking about it.)

As such, it was with a big smile on his face as he opened the door to the distorted reflection that was the Department of Mysteries' Death Chamber in the Realms.

His smile dropped as he saw the silvery specter that was already inside.

"Vlad." He spat the word, as if to get rid of the taste of it on his tongue.

"Ah, Daniel. I was hoping you'd show up."

Danny narrowed his eyes. There was no way for Vlad to have found him in the Realms unless he'd gotten a tip, not with how infrequently Danny visited. Somebody must have seen Danny as he hung out with Johnny, and reported to Vlad. Freaking stalker.

"What do you want?"

Vlad seemed to think it over, before going directly into monologue mode. "I was wondering how you could just... forgive your parents for what they did to you. Then I realised, you don't actually _know_ , do you? You were in a lot of pain, it's only natural that you can't remember the details."

"Leave me alone, Vlad."

"You're not denying it." Vlad smirked. "You were dying, little badger. Don't you wonder how you survived?"

"Technically, I didn't." Danny rolled his eyes. "They were working on getting rid of the sacrifice, you know that."

"I'm aware of the fact. Did I ever tell you about _my_ accident?" Vlad's voice lost it's teasing tone and became completely serious. He didn't wait for Danny to answer.

"We tried to forego of the sacrifice completely. However, death is required in order to open the Veil. I spent months in the hospital, slowly dying. Nothing the Healers tried worked. However, there is one thing that can keep you alive no matter how close to death you are... Even if half your soul has died and completed the transformation into a ghost."

Vlad trailed off, his eyes locked onto the wall. He blinked and brought his gaze back to Danny.

"As such, they knew ignoring the sacrifice wouldn't work. The second time around, your parents tried to _shift_ the death required."

Despite himself, Danny was listening intently.

"Rather than a human, Jack and Maddie never did have the stomach for murder, they had already sacrificed an... animal."

"Big deal. I eat meat, I'm not Sam."

Vlad looked like he was in on a dark joke Danny wasn't privy to, but he wasn't smiling.

"Well, Daniel, the sacrifice was a unicorn."

Despite currently being a ghost, Danny felt his blood run cold.

"A- A unicorn? You're lying! My parents would never-"

"Am I? Well, then I'm sure you didn't see any seals written in unicorn blood."

The silvery liquid. That hadn't been ghost blood. Of course it hadn't, living people couldn't touch ghost blood, much less write with it.

Did ghost blood even glow under moonlight?

"Well, as luck would have it... they hadn't used all the blood for runes. They had just enough left to stop you from dying completely. It would never be enough to reverse the process, mind you, but it could stop you at merely halfway dead. Just like it did for me."

Danny wanted to scream denials, but his mind was blank. The image of his mother putting a cup to his lips and telling him to _'drink this, you'll feel better'_ repeated in his memories. Unicorn blood. He had drunk unicorn blood.

He felt like is heart had stopped. (It already had, he was a ghost.) His tongue was thick and heavy, making it hard to breathe around it. (He did need to breathe, he was a ghost.)

Danny swallowed. "You're lying." His voice was weak.

"I'm afraid not, Daniel."

Danny backed away, but he couldn't tear his eyes from Vlad. The man managed to look both sympathetic and bitter.

"I thought you deserved to know."

* * *

"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price _._ [...] you will have but a **half-life** , a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

—Firenze, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone [My emphasis.]

* * *

 **AN:** Hey, remember how Danny ultimately is just a kid who due to an accident ends up being something that everyone tells him is evil?

(You know, I started this fic because I wanted something simple to ease me back into writing. Now there's _plot_ and stuff. Where did my silly slice-of-life story go? I even changed the second genre to 'drama'.)


	19. Snakebite

**Snakebite**

Danny stumbled through the Veil, his thoughts a disorganized mess.

He needed to find out the truth.

His parents... he didn't want to confront them until he knew Vlad had been telling the truth. (Wouldn't it be just like Vlad to lie? To try to manipulate him?)

He didn't need to ask them, though. Sam and Tucker had been there too. Sam... Sam who had been acting afraid around his parents since then.

Not because she felt like they blamed her, but because she knew they'd used unicorn blood. Sam, who had been angry at the mere mention of the event. Because she knew they'd made him drink unicorn blood.

(No, Vlad was lying. He had to be.)

(But it made sense.)

(No, it didn't.)

Danny closed the blast doors behind him, he didn't want Vlad to follow him. He couldn't deal with something like that just then.

(Maybe _that_ was the real reason his parents had installed the blast doors. Not for safety, but to make sure Vlad couldn't show up at the Ministry.)

His mind was racing as he stepped out of the Death Chamber and asked the circular room for the exit, not remembering his plan to borrow a Time-Turner in his stupor.

(Drink this, you'll feel better.)

Danny never wanted to drink anything ever again.

(Sam would have _told_ him if it was true. Wouldn't she?)

He needed to talk to Sam.

(That _had_ to be why Sam had been so weird around his parents.)

(No it didn't. Because Vlad was lying.)

Those words repeated in his head like a mantra. _Vlad_ _was_ _lying._

The room spun around Danny, which was more disorienting than usual, and he opened the door that stopped to be in front of him.

Only to stumble over something soft.

Danny didn't have time to take in the situation before he was attacked by a large snake. He dodged and pulled his wand on pure muscle memory, but when he tried to stun the snake it disappeared.

"What the- Mr. Weasley!?"

* * *

At Hogwarts, Harry Potter woke with a scream.

* * *

Despite having been in a panicked state only moments earlier, arriving in the middle of an actual crisis allowed Danny to calm down.

(Firstly, assess the situation.)

Mr. Weasley was bleeding _a lot_ and none of the simple healing spells Danny knew could stop the flow of blood.

There was potentially still a dangerous snake around, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

They were outside the Department of Mysteries, where none of them would like to be discovered.

(What can be done to fix all of these problems?)

He needed to get Mr. Weasley to St. Mungo's.

(Go!)

Danny steadied himself as he pulled Mr. Weasley over his shoulder. It wasn't a very balanced position, but there was very little he could do about that.

He only paused to get his bearings and cast a Scourgify to get rid of the blood on the floor.

The trek towards the elevators was torturous. He was holding onto Mr. Weasley's arms, but his grip kept slipping on the blood.

A mumbled levitation charm (not nearly enough to carry Mr. Weasley on its own) was the only thing that kept them going.

The ground level of the Ministry was still empty.

Danny wasn't sure of whether that was a good thing or not.

Slipping _through_ the gates while carrying someone wasn't impossible, but it took a lot out of him. Making another person intangible was something he'd only really done with Tucker, since Sam refused to acknowledge the whole ghost thing. (And for good reason, if Vlad hadn't been lying...)

(No time for a pity-party! Focus on saving Mr. Weasley!)

He stumbled over to the closest fireplace.

"St. Mungo's!"

The world spund, ashes got into his mouth. He almost lost his grip on Mr. Weasley, but after a few horrible seconds he was able to step out into the hospital.

"HELP!"

Everything was a blur. Exhaustion took over as the adrenaline wore out.

Concerned Healers came and took Mr. Weasley.

They were talking loudly, but he couldn't force himself to make sense of the sounds.

Everything felt like it was far away, like he was watching the events of a play rather than real life.

Before he knew it, somebody took his hand and pulled him away from the other.

"-nny! Danny!"

He blinked, and the world came back into focus.

In front of him was a very worried Jazz.

"Are you hurt?" She had a demanding, no-nonsense tone. It was familiar, and he let himself focus on that and nothing else.

He shook his head. "It's okay. It's not my blood."

Jazz let go of a deep breath. "Good."

"Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"I am." She rolled her eyes, but she smiled weakly at his attempt at humour. "I'm currently assessing the health of somebody who came into the hospital covered in blood. What happened?"

"I had a bad day."

Jazz's eyes narrowed.

"Worse than usual... There was a snake."

"A snake?"

"Yeah. Guess my ability to scare off animals finally came to use."

Jazz shrugged and motioned towards the nearest bathroom. "Go get yourself cleaned up. You can explain when you've pulled yourself together."

He nodded, slipping into the toilet without a word.

There was nobody in any of the stalls, which he was thankful for. He hesitantly turned towards his reflection in the mirror over the sink.

Danny instantly regretted it.

His face was paler than usual, covered with a thin layer of sweat. The dark circles under his eyes that never seemed to go away were more pronounced than ever.

He turned on the water, planning to splash his face in it when he saw his hands. They were covered in blood, and Danny wasn't sure of how he could have forgotten that.

The water was freezing, even as he tried to turn it to the hottest level.

Still, he rubbed in the soap. He needed to get rid of the blood.

For a moment, what he saw wasn't red, but silver.

He rubbed harder.

(Blood on his hands.)

(Unclean.)

(So much blood.)

(Drink this, you'll feel better.)

(All on his hands.)

Pain brought him back to reality. He had been washing his hands so hard they were beginning to turn pink.

Danny exhaled slowly. He was letting himself get worked up again. There was no point to go into a panic over Vlad's lies.

Yes, lies. That was all they were.

Danny cupped his hands, filling them with water before bringing them towards his face. It felt like it woke him up, even if he wasn't any cleaner. The blood in his shirt wasn't going to go away any time soon, but at least it was a black shirt.

His reflection still looked like he had been through Hell, but at least now he didn't looked like he deserved it.

He sighed, before going out to join Jazz again.

Jazz was talking to Professor McGonagall.

Danny bit back a swear. _(Busted!)_

Before he could duck back into the bathroom (and escape through the wall), she turned around and spotted him.

"Ah, Mr. Fenton. There you are."

He didn't step closer, merely looked from the professor to his sister. Jazz shook her head, as if to say that she hadn't turned him in.

"You're going to have to come with-"

Before McGonagall could finish the sentence, Danny had his wand up and pointing at her.

"I'm not going anywhere. Jazz, step away from her."

Both women looked equally confused, but Jazz did as he asked.

"Now, Professor McGonagall, don't take this personally. It's just that I was recently attacked in a place that I considered safe. So I'm a bit on edge right now." Danny did a quick sweep of the corridor they were in. They were alone. "So either you tell me how you found me, and prove that you're not some polyjuiced impostor, or I stun you and get the Aurors. How does that sound?"

"Moody is going to love you," muttered McGonagall under her breath. Danny got the distinct impression he wasn't supposed to hear it. "One of the portraits in the headmaster's office has a double here. We were notified the moment you stepped into St. Mungos."

"I see." Danny nodded. However, he didn't lower his wand.

Professor McGonagall looked like she wanted to roll her eyes. "As for my identity..." She promptly turned into a cat and back. "... that ought to do it."

Danny put his wand back in his pocket.

"So, where are we going?"

* * *

 **AN** : The way the Trace works is that it checks for magic in the vicinity of underage wizards. (This is why Dobby could get Harry blamed for the whole floating cake incident.) If you're somewhere an adult wizard can be expected to be, the Trace won't react since it will assume the adult is responsible for any magic cast. As such, Danny won't get into trouble for using magic outside of school.

Danny is not in a good mental state, and is slipping in and out of denial. That won't last for long, since he's only able to push everything aside through focusing on something else. Next week we'll have a little less angst, as well as Danny actually starting to deal with his issues, rather than trying (and failing) to pretend that there are no issues.


	20. The Order of the Phoenix

**The Order of the Phoenix**

Danny stumbled into the house.

Professor McGonagall followed him, closing the door behind them and wiping her hands of the ashes of the hand-written note she had given him to read.

Danny took one look around before turning around and heading towards the door. "Nope. Nope. _Nope!_ However lives here is obviously dark!"

"Don't raise your voice." McGonagall looked worried, which did _nothing_ to calm Danny down.

"There are stuffed heads over there!" Danny whispered loudly in lieu of shouting.

"I assure you, it's quite alright."

Danny wasn't convinced, and he hoped his flat stare said as much, but Professor McGonagall walked away and he just sort of followed.

They entered a kitchen, which looked just as gloomy and dark as the hallway, aside from one detail – nearly the entire Weasley family plus Harry Potter were there. They looked as stressed and generally awful as Danny felt.

Before he could decide what to say, Mrs. Weasley pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, Danny. Thank you. _Thank_ _you!"_

Danny just blinked, his face pressed against her shoulder. His arms hung limply by his sides. It felt weird to be thanked, especially when he hadn't even triedto do something good. Compared to all the times he _had_ tried to help people in the Realms, only for them to call him-

(A monster.)

(Freak.)

(They weren't wrong, now were they?)

"Ah, erm... You're welcome?"

Mrs. Weasley nodded, apparently mollified by this. She ushered him into one of the unoccupied kitchen chairs before busying herself with something at the counter.

"Here, dear. Have some tea, it'll help calm your nerves."

Danny just nodded weakly, before staring at the golden liquid.

(Drink this, you'll feel better.)

He felt sick.

His hands were shaking and he wrapped his fingers around the cup. The heat was nice, but there was no way he was going to let a single drop pass his lips.

Mrs. Weasley followed Professor McGonagall out of the room, whispering about something. (Likely Mr. Weasley)

Which left Danny alone with Fred, George, Ron, Ginny and Harry. All of whom were staring at him.

"Hi?"

"So-" Fred leaned forward in his chair, bringing his face closer to Danny's.

"-how's dad?" George looked only half-awake, but there was an intensity in his eyes.

Danny looked from the twins to the rest of the people at the table. Everyone looked tense. Would it be better to tell them the truth, all the details he could remember, or should he say something soothing?

"He was bleeding. A lot. None of my healing spells did anything, but that might have been because I messed them up. The people at St. Mungo's are bound to know more than I, so I think he'll be fine. I mean... he was still alive and all when I brought him in, and he could hardly have gotten _worse_ because he was pretty bad off and-"

Foot, meet mouth.

"I think he'll be fine. I wasn't really... I didn't pay much attention towards the end. You should ask Professor McGonagall."

All the Weasleys wore similar worried and shocked expressions. Danny wished he hadn't said anything, they obviously hadn't known how bad off their dad had been.

"What were you doing at the Department of Mysteries?" Harry looked focused, for the first time since Danny had entered.

(It seemed a bit odd, really, how poorly Harry was taking his best friend's dad getting attacked. Danny felt like he was missing something.)

Danny was saved from answering by the timely entrance of Mrs. Weasley, Professor McGonagall and a man he didn't recognize.

Danny's one hand grasped his wand, without him actually thinking about it. _Something_ about the man screamed 'danger', and it wasn't his many visible scars. Or his lost eye. Or even his limping.

The man had obviously been in many battles, but it was the expression on his face that really put Danny on edge.

A chill travelled up Danny's neck as he realised exactly what was wrong with that expression. The man reminded him of Skulker. (Danny was 80% sure that wasn't the ghost's real name.) This was a _hunter_.

The man's fake eye seemed to be locked onto Danny's wand, even though Danny kept it hidden underneath the table.

Maybe he was too tired to think properly, but it seemed like a theory he needed to test. If the man could see through solid objects Danny would have to be extra careful when doing anything ghostly...

Danny flicked his wand rapidly under the table, as if casting a spell.

The reaction was slightly _faster_ than instantaneous. If not for his experience with Skulker, Danny wouldn't have been able to dodge in time. The crash of his wooden chair hitting the floor was the only sound in the kitchen, as the old man called off his attack after merely one failed blast.

"Alastor!" The outraged cry came in unison from Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall.

"Kid was pretending to cast some spell on me." The freshly dubbed Alastor didn't look at all apologetic. He turned back towards Danny, his normal eye joining the fake one in staring. "You've got good reflexes."

"I was prepared." Danny shrugged. "Your not half-bad yourself."

Professor McGonagall looked like she was about to have a heart attack. "You provoked Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody _on_ _purpose."_

"Sure." Danny righted the chair, eyes not leaving Moody's wand. "Though, to be fair, that name doesn't really mean anything to me. American, remember?"

McGonagall practically fell into one of the chairs, seemingly regretting all of her life choices.

"I'm an ex-Auror, kid. Here to talk to you about your part in what happened tonight."

"That can wait until tomorrow, he's exhausted." Mrs. Weasley looked exhausted herself, but she apparently had a enough energy to scold them. "And that won't improve by you two flinging spells at each other."

Danny wanted to protest, since _he_ hadn't actually flung any spells at anyone, but he thought better of it.

"I don't think I want to talk to an Auror without an attorney present."

" _Ex-_ Auror _._ "

"All right, an ex-attorney."

Mrs. Weasley fell back into fuzzing. "Danny, you haven't even touched your tea."

Danny hastily pretended to drink, not letting a single drop pass his lips.

Moody's mouth twitched into a crooked smile.

Danny's mood soured. There was no need for someone who was practically a stranger to make fun of his paranoia.

In response to his glare, Moody very carefully removed a bottle from his coat and took a long, slow sip.

Danny had no idea what to think about _that_.

"Let's just get this over with." Danny sighed, just wanting to go to bed and pretend the entire day hadn't happened.

Danny, Moody and McGonagall left the kitchen to the Weasleys and Harry.

The room they walked into was simple, with just a big table and chairs. Danny fell into the closest chair with gratitude.

"What _is_ this place?"

"The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." McGonagall made it seem important, but Danny could only shake his head.

"I have no idea what that is."

"We're the organized resistance against the Death Eaters." Moody's explanation was clipped and to the point. Danny liked it on principle. "Lead by Dumbledore. Your parents recently joined. They should be on their way here."

Danny had to force his face to remain impassive.

(All those questions Dumbledore had asked.)

(It had been so he would know if inviting the Fentons was a good idea.)

(Danny had outright stated that his parents weren't Dark.)

(He wasn't so sure about that anymore.)

Danny bit his lip. Whatever flaws his parents had, they wouldn't betray the Order to Voldemort.

(Of course, Danny would have said 'they wouldn't kill a unicorn' with the same confident tone just hours ago...)

"So, what do you want to know?" Danny asked the question mostly as a way to stop his racing thoughts.

"What where you doing at the Ministry?"

"That's Unspeakable."

* * *

 **AN:** I shouldn't be a surprise to you, but Moody wasn't making fun of Danny's paranoia. That was just Danny being... paranoid.

I couldn't consult my copy of OoTP when writing this, since I'd misplaced it, but I figure that if you wanted to read something close to canon you'd just read the actual book.


	21. Confrontations

**Confrontations**

"That's Unspeakable."

The way Moody frowned, he wasn't happy with that answer.

Danny was also growing tired of it.

Danny had taken to saying the phrase whenever Moody questioned him on why he had been in the Department of Mysteries in the first place, and since Moody didn't think that was an acceptable answer he kept rephrasing the question.

At least the questions about Mr. Weasley and the snake were ones Danny could answer.

Except for the details regarding how he'd gotten Mr. Weasley out of the Ministry. He'd pulled the main straight through a closed gate, after all.

Mr. Moody had a suspicious look on his face, and was far too observant to not notice the inconsistencies in Danny's story.

Which was why Danny was _almost_ happy when his parents entered the room and distracted Mr. Moody and Professor McGonagall from their questions.

"Danny-boy! Are you alright? We heard you got attacked by a giant snake." Danny's dad pulled him into a bone-crushing hug before holding him at arm's reach to look him over for injuries.

"I'm fine. The snake didn't attack _me._ "

His mother's eyes narrowed. "Is that blood?"

"Not mine."

"You shouldn't even have been there. You should be at school, young man." Having apparently decided Danny was unharmed, his mom went straight into lecture-mode. "While it's good that you could help Mr. Weasley, I'm very disappointed in you. You could have _died._ "

Danny's fingers pulled into fists, and he couldn't stop them from shaking with anger.

"Like you would have let me."

He had not meant to say that.

His mom's eyes widened, and she turned towards the non-Fenton Order members. "Could we have some privacy?"

McGonagall left without protest, but Moody shot Danny one last, lingering look before vacating the room.

She waited until the door closed before turning back towards Danny.

"What do you mean by that?" Her voice was hard and cold, like iron.

The thin layer of cold calm that had covered Danny's emotions broke. "You know exactly what I'm talking about! Otherwise you wouldn't have asked them to leave!"

His parents shared a worried look.

"I know about the unicorn blood." He spat the words, as if to get rid of the taste of them on his tongue.

"Sweetheart..."

"I don't want to hear it."

"How did you find out?" His dad was uncharacteristically serious.

"So it's true?" Danny had still been hoping beyond hope that Vlad had been lying.

The look in his parents' faces was all the answer he needed.

"Why?"

"You were dying in my arms and I had a way to save you." His mom's jaw clenched, before her voice softened. "Danny, we're your parents. We couldn't let you die due to _our_ mistakes."

Danny didn't meet her eyes, trying to hold on to his righteous anger.

"There was no time to think, not like with..." She trailed off.

"Like with Vlad?"

"Is he the one who told you about this?"

"So what if he was!? At least he told me _the_ _truth,_ unlike you guys! Does Sam and Tucker know about this? Does Jazz?"

"Sam knows. Tucker... fainted when we started talking about taking you to the hospital. We never told Jazz."

Danny nodded, absorbing the new information. He sat down again on one of the chairs, and was soon followed by his mom. His dad had taken to pacing in front of one of the windows.

There was a moment of silence as all the of them gathered their thoughts.

"Why?"

"We already told-"

"Why did you kill the unicorn?" Danny clarified without looking at them. The pattern of the wood on the floor was suddenly very interesting.

"We didn't. We got the blood from the black market." His dad seemed genuinely surprised at the accusation, so it was probably true.

Danny snorted. "Like that makes any difference."

"I guess it doesn't." His mom shook her head, before leaning over and taking Danny's hand. "But you must realise, honey, unicorns aren't _humans._ They don't have emotions."

" _I'm_ not human, in case you forgot." Danny pulled away his hands.

"But you're sapient. A unicorn isn't." His dad looked desperate in trying to get the point across. "Killing one is no different from killing a cow for meat."

Danny shook his head. Yes it was.

"I won't be home for Christmas," Danny said the words with finality. His tone made it clear he didn't allow them to question him. "I don't want to be around you right now."

"Danny-" Ignoring the atmosphere like usual, his dad started to protest.

"I just... I need this to calm down. If I come home with you I'll say or do something I don't mean."

His mom nodded. "Are you going back to Hogwarts, then?"

The thought of spending the holidays at school, when he'd just had a big argument with his classmates, didn't seem appealing.

"I'll be in Amity Park. Just because _you_ got thrown out doesn't mean _I_ can't go back."

Danny felt drained. He didn't want to spend another second with his parents, so he got up and went back into the kitchen.

The kids had all gone to bed, but Mrs. Weasley, Professor McGonagall and Mr. Moody were still up.

Moody's wand was already turned in Danny's direction when he walked through the door, but there was something different in his expression. The way his eyebrows twisted almost made it look like he was feeling _pity,_ along with the previous suspicion.

"Want to hear something interesting?" Moody didn't wait for Danny to answer. "You already figured out I can see through walls."

Danny nodded hesitantly, not liking where things were going but not having the energy to stop it.

"If one has an ability like that, isn't it important to make the most of it?"

"Sure. I guess." Danny shrugged, somehow it felt like having a conversation with Mr. Lancer, where the teacher tried to help him come to the correct conclusion on his own. Still, he was much too tired to understand what Moody was hinting at.

"I know how to read lips."

Danny's eyes darted towards the exit, while his fingers curled around his wand. The adrenaline rushing through his body woke him up again. The conversation with his parents rushed through his head. What had he revealed?

Everything. Or close enough. He was doomed.

"Any thoughts?" Danny was expecting a curse to hit his chest, or maybe to get pulled off to Azkaban.

Instead, Moody shrugged. "I only drink from my own flask. Keeps me from getting poisoned."

"Thanks for the tip." Danny wasn't sure of whether he was sincere or sarcastic, but he was already developing a headache from not drinking enough water, so he gave Moody a broken smile.

Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall wore similar befuddled expressions.

The lack of curses thrown at him, or at his parents, was starting to confuse Danny.

He risked throwing a look out the door, to see if his parents were still in the conference room. Danny could see his mom through the open doors. What he couldn't do, across the distance of the hallway, was make out any minor details about her – such as the shape of her lips.

That was when he realised that Moody's comment was built upon their previous conversation in the kitchen, and not anything he'd gotten through spying on the Fentons.

"You're bluffing." Danny exhaled the words.

Moody shrugged, like he wasn't overly upset about getting caught.

"You've got a really good poker face."

"You don't," countered Moody. "And you're not very good at distractions either."

"I'm working on it."

Moody looked like he was going to comment on how Danny's immediate reaction to thinking he'd been overheard was to hold onto his wand and look for escape routes.

He didn't have time to, because Mrs. Weasley had had enough of cryptic conversations. "It's already so late. Are you sleeping here, or are you and your parents going home for the night?"

"Here. I'm sleeping here. Can't speak for my parents, though."

* * *

 **AN:** I tried to keep Jack and Maddie's reasoning regarding unicorns similar to their canon reasoning regarding ghosts. They are not particularly good people when it comes to how they treat anyone they deem as less than human. At least they didn't _dissect_ the unicorn.


	22. Amity Park

**Amity Park**

Danny was some version of calm when he woke up. All the stress and adrenaline had washed away and left him empty inside.

The strange hollowness was preferable to the burning rage he'd felt before.

Danny got dressed in the same clothes he'd worn the previous day. The dried in blood crinkled as he pulled his shirt on. He scrunched up his nose at it. It seemed like he'd have to go home in order to get some clothes before heading off to the States.

He quickly made the bed and slipped out of the room, not wanting to spend more time than necessary alone in a place that reeked of Dark arts, only to stumble over something right outside the door.

 _'My bag,'_ thought Danny. _'Somebody must have picked it up at Hogwarts.'_

That solved so many problems, he couldn't hold back the grin that grew on his face. Going back into the guest room, he pulled on a shirt that _wasn't_ covered in blood.

Feeling much better about life in general, Danny walked down into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Danny." Mrs. Weasley greeted him with a big smile and a plate of sausages.

The English had some weird opinions of what counted as breakfast, but at least it wasn't toast.

The rest of the Weasleys, minus Ron and Harry, were also up and about.

"Morning," mumbled Danny, taking a seat and eating his food without joining in on the twins' conversation. As interesting as it sounded, he wasn't in the mood.

In no time at all, the plate in front of him was empty.

"Well. I'm off. See you at school."

The twins and Ginny waved, while Mrs. Weasley walked him to the door. "Thank you again, for helping Arthur."

Danny shrugged. "I was just at the right place at the right time."

"Tell your parents I said 'hi'."

Danny gave a non-committing hum, letting her think he was going home.

To be fair, in a sense, he _was_.

* * *

The International Floo didn't connect directly to Amity Park, so Danny had to change fireplaces at New York.

It was still much, _much_ better than crossing the ocean on a broomstick.

"Amity Park, I'm back." Danny smiled weakly, hosting up his bag on his shoulder and exiting the fireplace at the Nasty Burger.

British pubs may be cute, but they couldn't compete against classic American fast food. Since he was already there, and surrounded by tantalising smells of grease and secret spices, Danny bought himself a burger. When the guy behind the counter talked to him in an _American_ accent and Danny got to pay with his saved _American_ money, he felt something warm grow in his heart. Like nostalgia, but closer.

The burger wasn't as good as he remembered it.

Still, he was back. That alone was enough to make him feel... something.

Danny smiled to himself, as he started walking towards Tucker's place.

The ground was a patchwork of dark concrete and white snow. The snow cover was thin, and would probably melt under the midday sun. Compared to Scotland, the air was warm and dry.

The last thing he passed before leaving behind the magical parts of Amity was Casper. The school looked off, but that was probably because he kept comparing it to its reflection in the Infinite Realms.

Danny slipped through the door into mundane Amity Park. From the muggle side, it looked like a barbed fence leading to an abandoned factory. (Whether "Axion Labs" had ever really existed or not, Danny didn't know.)

Finding himself at the edge of the industrial area, Danny let his feet lead him to Tucker's house. It was reassuring to know he still knew the way without having to think about it.

The Foley residence was a normal wooden house, which made it different from FentonWorks (1, the original) in pretty much every conceivable way.

Danny rang the bell, craning his neck to see through the window inlaid in the door.

Which was why he saw when a very irritated Tucker stopped in his tracks. The frown melted right off Tucker's face, getting replaced with a big smile. As if to make up for the time he had lost by stopping, he practically ran over to open the door.

"Danny!"

"Tucker!"

Tucker grabbed onto Danny's arm, pulling him close in a facsimile of a handshake. "I can't believe you're really here!"

Danny's shoulders dropped as he lost tension he hadn't even noticed he was carrying. "Man, it's so good to see you again!"

"Come on, let's go up to my room."

Oddly enough, there were _two_ sleeping bags laid out on the floor in Tucker's room. Danny raised an eyebrow as he saw them.

"Yeah, pretty much the entire extended family is staying here for Christmas. I have to share my room with two of my cousins..." Tucker trailed off, his eyes widening as he looked at Danny's duffel bag. "You don't have anywhere to stay, do you?"

Danny shrugged, not meeting Tucker's eyes.

"Aw, man. Sorry. I would let you stay here, if there was room, but..."

"Tuck, you're rambling. And it isn't your fault."

 _'I'm the one who didn't think things through.'_

"Yeah, but..."

"I'll manage. Let's just... talk about the newest piece of technology that I won't understand," pleaded Danny, throwing in some puppy-dog eyes for good measure.

Tucker smiled. "Dude, I missed you."

Danny sat down on Tucker's bed as Tuck went into a lengthy explanation on everything that had happened since the start of school.

"And then I dated Star for a while... So, what's up with you lately?"

Danny looked away, pulling his lips into a bad imitation of a smile. "A lot. None of it good."

Tucker titled his head in confusion.

Danny was saved from going into details as the doorbell rang again. "Aren't you gonna get that?"

Tucker waved it off. "Let my parents deal with it."

Danny nodded, but before he could say anything there was the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.

The door opened, revealing an increasingly surprised Sam. "Danny!"

"Hi, Sam." Unlike with Tucker, Danny's smile was less than genuine. Luckily, he didn't have to fake it for long since Sam pulled him into a tight hug.

"I missed you! When did you get back? _Why_ are you back?"

"I... I got here by noon. I needed... I needed some time away from my parents, that's all."

"Don't you go to a boarding school?" Sam raised a single eyebrow, not looking impressed with Danny's explanation.

"Yes, well..." Danny cleared his throat. He _had_ been planning on confronting Sam, but he didn't want to blow up at her like he had at his parents. He took a calming breath before continuing. "I found out about what happened after my Accident."

While Tucker just looked confused, the way Sam stiffened showed that she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me." His voice was hard and accusing.

Sam squirmed. "It wouldn't have made any difference..."

"You didn't think I _deserved_ to know!? Do you know how I found out!?"

Sam didn't try to answer the rhetorical question, her mouth opening and closing without making any noise.

" _Vlad_ told me! Not any of my friends or family, but my _archenemy_!"

"Danny..."

" _What_?"

"I'm sorry, but telling you wouldn't change what had happened. We all agreed that you didn't need to know, that it would just make you feel bad."

"You were right about that, I _do_ feel bad." Danny pulled his duffel bag over his shoulder again. "Bye Tucker, see you later. Bye Sam."

The omitted 'see you later' was enough to stop her from following him.

Danny just walked, if the speed allowed it to still be counted as walking, too lost in thoughts to pay any attention to where he was going. He just needed to get _away_ from Sam with her well-meaning lies and Tucker with his happy family who didn't force him into the Darkest of magics.

Danny wasn't surprised when he looked up and found he'd stopped outside of FentonWorks.

Yellow tape hung across the door. _Police line. Do not cross._

 _'I guess they didn't blow it up, then.'_

Well, he might as well sleep in his own room. Danny phased through the door.

It wasn't like coming home.

There were no furniture. The floors were filthy, with clear paths of mud and gravel leading towards the basement. The people who had come to check out the Fenton Veil obviously hadn't bothered with cleaning their shoes on the old welcome mat before going inside. The cold of the Veil seeped through the house, in a way it hadn't when they'd still been living there.

Judging by the dirt, at least nobody had bothered with going upstairs.

Danny grabbed onto the railing as he pulled his tired body up the stairs, ending up with a hand covered in dust. He scrunched his nose at it before turning intangible, letting the grime fall through his hand.

Danny sighed heavily.

The door to his old room was slightly ajar, and he pushed it open.

It was a good thing he was already feeling so numb inside, because there was something fundamentally wrong about seeing the room he grew up in stripped of everything that had made it unique.

The walls were bare, and the places his posters had hung were visibly less lightened by the sun. The lack of curtains gave the room a different feel all together.

At least his old bed was there. Sure, the mattress was free of sheets and pillows and pretty much everything, but the bed was right where he left it.

Danny collapsed on it, the action kicking up a cloud of dust. He coughed and his eyes watered, but he kept them closed and let exhaustion take over.

His coughing turned into a yawn, and he was almost falling asleep, when a heavy hand descended on his shoulder.

"Kid, you're not allowed here. That tape is there for a _reason._ "

Danny opened his heavy eyes, coming face-to-face with an uniformed Auror.

"You're gonna have to come with me down to the station."

* * *

 **AN:** Danny really didn't think things through before running off to Amity Park.


	23. The Rules of Monopoly

**The Rules of Monopoly**

The Auror station was a grey building, inside and out. The old stone section, complete with fireplace, had been expanded over the years to include a cement prison block. Metal prison bars completed the monochrome image.

Auror Blubs' was a stout black man with an impressive moustache, which had started to match the grey of the décor years ago. Danny recognized him vaguely from the "the government finds out about the Fenton Veil" incident. The other Auror stationed in Amity Park, Durland, was out.

Danny sat down on an uncomfortable wooden chair on the other side of the desk.

"All right, kid. I'm going to owl your parents so they can come and pick you up."

"You can't."

"I have to. You were trespassing, but I'm willing to let you off with a warning." Auror Blubs' tone was kind, but firm. "You certainly aren't the first kid to break into that house, but it's a dangerous place. If you had gone into the basement, rather than the second floor... What were you doing on the second floor, anyway? Did one of your friends dare you to stay the night there or something?"

"I wasn't trespassing! That's my house!" Danny threw his arms into the air, interrupting Blubs' line of questioning.

"Oh." Blubs blinked. "You're the Fenton kid."

"Yeah." Danny pulled up his passport, sliding it over the desk. "So you see, my parents _really_ can't come and pick me up."

"Since you're a minor I can't just let you go off alone..." Auror Blubs looked genuinely troubled by the situation.

"At this point, I'm tired enough to sleep in a cell." Danny yawned widely.

Auror Blubs barked out a short laugh.

Danny smiled back weakly. He hadn't been joking.

Maybe they could contact the Foleys. Just because he couldn't stay with them didn't mean they couldn't _claim_ he would.

He was about to suggest his idea when the front door opened.

Danny expected just another Auror, but his paranoia prompted him to check anyway.

Vlad Masters stood by the door, looking as smug as ever.

Danny had to stop himself from gasping. _Of_ _course,_ the last person he wanted to see would show up.

 _'Or, well, the last person I'd want to see that isn't banned from entering the country.'_

Danny sank down in his seat, not really expecting to go unnoticed, but still hoping to hide.

"I heard that the intruder alerts on FentonWorks went off. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, Mayor Masters." Blubs stood up. "It was just another kid, nothing to worry about."

"If you say so." Vlad's voice was like oil. Slick, but it still left you feeling like you needed a hot bath to wash away the grime.

Danny sat very still. With any luck-

"Daniel?" Vlad's eyes widened, and his eyebrows rose. Danny wasn't entirely convinced the surprise wasn't faked.

"Hi, Vlad." Danny gave a half-hearted wave.

Auror Blubs looked like Christmas had come early. "You two know each other?"

"Ah, yes. Young Daniel here is my godson."

"Perfect. Then I can entrust him to your care. I would normally contact his parents, but given the situation..."

Vlad nodded gravely, not really hiding his smugness.

Danny rolled his eyes.

"Come along, Daniel. We don't want to stay here longer than necessary."

Danny grumbled incoherent insults under his breath, but shouldered his bag and followed Vlad out of the station.

"Thanks for springing me, but I'm just gonna leave now."

"Oh, and go where?" Vlad put his hands behind his back.

Going back to the UK, to his parents and his classmates, didn't seem all that appealing. "I'll take in at a hotel or something."

"Do you have enough money for that?" Vlad raised a single eyebrow and tilted his head slightly.

"None of your business." Danny rubbed at his eye with the ball of his hand.

"That means 'no'." Vlad smirked, before adding in a casual tone. "You're always welcome to stay at my place."

Danny shot him a tired glare in response.

"For the night, at least. You can figure out what to do about the rest of the winter vacation in the morning."

"Fine," exhaled Danny. He was too exhausted to argue. "But only for tonight."

"Of course." Vlad put one hand on Danny's shoulder and led him towards his mansion.

If Danny hadn't practically been sleeping were he stood, he would have objected to the action. As it was, he was forced to lean into the touch to remain on his feet.

In Danny's sleep-addled mind, it felt like it only took them a moment to get to Vlad's house.

"It's not that late, would you like dinner before you head off to bead?"

"Two words, Fruitloop, _time_ _difference._ " However, Danny's stomach decided to rebel and made an embarrassingly loud noise. "Maybe just a sandwich?"

Vlad chuckled, and pointed Danny towards the dining room.

Danny practically collapsed into the closest chair.

 _'I shouldn't have come here. Still, it's not like I have anywhere else to go...'_

A sandwich was placed in front of him.

 _'And suddenly I have no regrets.'_

Vlad sat down at the other side of the table. "I'm assuming you talked to your parents about your Accident."

Danny nodded mutely, taking a big bite out of the sandwich as an excuse not to say anything.

However, Vlad was being patient. Rather than continue the one-sided conversation, he said nothing until Danny felt the need to fill the silence.

"You were right." Danny looked away. "Thanks. For telling me."

"It's your body, you deserved to know."

"Exactly!" Danny faced Vlad again, all his anger and resentment bubbling to the surface once more. "But none of my _friends_ and _family_ seem to understand that!"

"They were more interested in hiding their own mistakes, I take it?" Vlad hid a smirk behind his tented fingers.

"Yeah." Danny sank down in his seat.

Vlad nodded, before pulling out his wand. Danny tensed, but Vlad merely pointed it at the fireplace and sent a pink blast to start the fire. The flames turned from magenta to normal after a few seconds.

Aside from the colour, Danny was sure it was the same thing as the green fire he'd accidentally summoned so long ago. There was a twitch of jealousy at how easily and confidently Vlad wielded it, when Danny couldn't even call it out without covering things with ice.

"We're not really like ghosts, are we?"

Vlad shook his head. "We're something else entirely. Ghost don't have magic."

Danny gazed at the flickering flames, feeling physical exhaustion creeping up on him again. "Maybe that's why we don't belong anywhere."

Vlad made a small, questioning noise.

"I thought I'd feel better if I came back here, but everything is _wrong_ and a bunch of strangers dragged in mud into FentonWorks." Danny knew he was barely coherent, but Vlad seemed to understand. "That's not _home_ anymore."

"Your new house..."

"Oh, _please._ I've barely been there. Hogwarts is more home to me than that." Danny frowned and yawned.

Vlad smirked briefly, before schooling his features. "Well, Daniel... Those aren't your only options."

"What do you mean?" Danny wasn't nearly awake enough to decipher hints or riddles.

"Why, that you come and live with me, of course." Vlad turned towards the fire, as if to bring Danny's attention to it. His old offer to teach Danny about their shared ghostliness echoed in Danny's ears. "After all, we _are_ the only two half-ghosts in existence. Even if you don't belong anywhere else, you'll always have a place by my side."

The unspoken 'as my son' hung in the air.

"Vlad-"

"Just think about it. We can work out the details when you get out of school for the summer. Unless you'd rather live with your parents..."

Danny wanted to protest, but instead only shook his head. He was too tired for this.

But he was also too tired to go back to the people who had made him perform the Darkest of arts and then lied to him about it.

He finished his sandwich and let Vlad escort him to a guest room.

* * *

 **AN:** And that's how Danny learned the valuable lesson to always get a full night's sleep before talking to manipulative fruitloops.

Titles with double meanings are fun. This chapter's title refers to both the "get out of jail free" card and Vlad trying to monopolise Danny's time.


	24. Options

**AN:** This is a week where I felt like publishing twice. If the last thing you read involved Danny getting arrested, go and read chapter 23.

* * *

 **Options**

The sun had barely risen when Danny awoke, as the first rays hit his face. His internal clock felt like it was an appropriate time to awake, even though he'd normally never leave bed before noon on a weekend.

He looked around in confusion for a moment before he remembered where he was. The expensive furniture combined with the green and gold fabrics were a big hint.

Then the rest of the memories of the previous day came back, and Danny groaned.

 _'I can't believe I_ told _Vlad all of that.'_

Still, the Fruitloop hadn't mocked him for his weakness, like Danny would have expected. Unloading to a sympathetic ear had been... nice.

Using the word 'nice' to describe anything relating to Vlad was all kinds of weird.

This was _the_ Fruitloop he was thinking about. The person who had tried to kill Danny's dad, more than once. The person who had become mayor for the express purpose of making Danny's life difficult. The person who had caused so much trouble in the Infinite Realms.

That person.

Was being nice.

It didn't make sense.

 _'This isn't_ supposed _to be this confusing. Vlad is the villain...'_ Danny couldn't stop himself from resentfully adding _'On the other hand, my parents are_ supposed _to be on my side. Look where_ that _got me.'_

It was easier when he hadn't thought Vlad had a good _reason_ for all his hate and resentment.

Danny got out of bed and got dressed, despite the fact that the clock hadn't yet struck eight.

He still couldn't make heads or tails of his situation.

 _'Okay, simplify...'_

He had three options for how to spend his winter vacation.

One, he could stay with Vlad.

Two, he could go back to his parents.

Three, he could go back to Hogwarts.

Option number two wasn't really an option, and he wasn't too keen on number three either. With the way things were between him and the Hufflepuffs, his only friends at school were the Weasleys. And considering how things had been when Danny left England, the Weasleys would spend Christmas at the Order's headquarters.

Which left option number one.

Could he really spend the holidays with his old archenemy, just because he didn't like the other alternatives?

He made his way downstairs, to find Vlad eating breakfast in the dining room. The man looked up from his porridge as he heard Danny's footsteps.

"I take it you're leaving, then?" Vlad gestured towards Danny's duffel bag, which once more hung on his shoulders.

Danny hadn't even thought about what it meant to take his bag with him downstairs, just grabbing it by habit, but he made up his mind as he answered. "Yeah. I _did_ say I was only gonna stay the night."

"You should really have some breakfast before you go."

"Not hungry."

Vlad made a sudden motion and Danny jumped to the side to avoid the object that had been tossed at him.

It was an apple.

"In case you _do_ get hungry." Vlad had one raised eyebrow, but at least he didn't comment on Danny's reaction. Probably because it would remind them both that they usually acted as enemies.

Danny scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment as he picked up the fruit. "Thanks."

Vlad nodded, and got up to walk Danny to the door.

Privately, Danny thought that if Vlad was going to walk over to him anyway, he might as well have _handed_ Danny the apple.

"My offer for the summer-"

"I'll think about it." Danny couldn't hide how his voice wavered.

Vlad smiled, correctly interpreting both Danny's hesitation and the lack of outright rejection.

"Have a safe trip, Little Badger."

"Bye, Vlad."

Outside of Vlad's house it was snowing gently. The grey patches on the ground were barely covered before the snow melted away.

Danny took a slow pace as he walked, not really heading for his goal but letting his feet take him wherever.

As always, old habits meant he ended up outside of FentonWorks.

The red brick building looked odd, with the lights out and no curtains or plants in the windows.

Danny shivered and pulled at the light jacket he wore to blend in in muggle Amity. The sleeves were slightly too long, letting him hide his hands in them.

Still, it was a normal cold and not the chill of Death... Come to think of it, even Danny (who was more in tune with Death than most) couldn't feel the presence of the Fenton Veil outside of the house.

So how had the government found out about it? Aurors Blubs and Durland weren't exactly the most competent people around, there was no way they'd notice the portal in the basement...

Maybe his parents had told someone. His dad especially had a certain lack of... sense, when it came to such matters.

Just another thing to add to his ever-growing list of reasons to resent his parents.

He abruptly turned away from his old home, walking instead to Axion Labs and the entrance to magical Amity Park. A quick "text" to Tuck on Danny's cell phone and Danny sat down at a coffee shop to wait for his friend.

To justify taking up a table at the café, Danny bought himself a cup of coffee.

It was the best thing he'd tasted in what felt like years. Despite whatever damage the British food had done to his pallet that made him lose his love for Nasty Burgers, they wouldn't convert him into a tea drinker.

No way. Never.

Danny smiled as he finished his drink.

And then he smiled wider as he realised he had actually _drunk_ something without going into flashbacks.

Sure, now that he was thinking about it a small nagging voice was telling him he'd been poisoned... but he had managed to finish the coffee before the voice appeared. That was progress.

Danny decided that even if he psychologically didn't _need_ to follow Mr. Moody's advice regarding only drinking from his own flask anymore, he was still going to. It was some pretty solid advice.

Danny nursed the empty cup, wrapping his fingers around it for warmth. He looked out the window, and smiled as Tucker arrived.

The tiny bell on the door jingled, and Tucker took a detour to the register to get some coffee of his own before joining Danny.

"Dude, it's too cold outside." Tucker offered the complaint in lieu of a greeting, taking a seat opposite Danny and drinking deep mouthfuls of his coffee to warm himself.

Danny snorted. "You'd _hate_ Scotland. Utterly hate it."

"I don't think I need any more reasons to hate it other than 'technology doesn't work there'."

"That's just Hogwarts. I think technology works fine in the rest of the country."

"But are you _sure?"_

"Well... no."

"I wouldn't want to risk it." Tucker got the most incredulous expression on his face, his hands subconsciously moving towards his pockets and their hidden tech.

Danny laughed, his first real laugh since he'd found out about the unicorn blood.

Tucker let him finish laughing before changing the subject. "So. Do you want to talk about what happened yesterday?"

Danny shook his head.

"Fair enough, but Sam's really upset about it."

"Good."

"Tone down the spite, will ya?"

"Sorry. It's just... I haven't forgiven her. I'm not sure I can."

Tucker didn't look impressed. "Well, as somebody who has no idea what is going on I can't exactly tell you that you _should_ forgive her... But that doesn't mean you get to be a jerk."

"Wow Tuck. Thanks for this support in my time of crisis." Danny's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm your best friend, I'll always support you, but I'm her friend too."

"I didn't tell her anything she didn't deserve to hear."

Tucker shrugged. "I wouldn't know. All I know is that she spent nearly an hour crying at my place before she left."

Danny squirmed in his seat and looked out the window again.

"I think she meant well, with whatever it was that she did." Tucker took another sip of coffee.

"Sometimes, good intentions aren't enough."

Tucker finished his coffee in silence.

"I'm going back to Britain," said Danny as they stood to leave.

"I'd thought you left yesterday. Where did you even sleep?"

"Ah... erm... hotel?" Danny fidgeted.

"Danny, you can't lie. Please don't try to, it's painful to watch."

They walked outside, going from the warmth of the café into a chilly wind.

"Well... I tried to sleep at home."

"Dude! There's like, ten different spells keeping check on that place! The Aurors' set them up when they couldn't get rid of your Veil."

"Yeah. That's why I was arrested."

"You spent the night in jail?"

"... Yes?"

"Still terrible at lying, dude."

"Vlad sprung me and I slept in one of his guest rooms." Danny hung his head in defeat.

"Yikes, with _Vlad?_ "

"I didn't have much choice, now did I?"

Tucker shrugged in response.

They turned the corner and came face-to-face with the Nasty Burger.

"So, I guess this is 'good bye'?" Tucker turned towards Danny, looking melancholic.

"More like 'see you later'. I can come back whenever, you know. It doesn't even take that long if you go via floo."

They smiled at each other. Tucker waved one curt farewell as Danny walked inside the crowded restaurant.

The fireplace at the Nasty Burger took Danny away in a swirl of ash and flames.

* * *

After too much hassle and getting lost more than a couple of times, Danny found himself back where he started.

He stretched out a hand and knocked on the door to number 12 Grimmauld Place.

Mrs. Weasley answered, her eyes widening as she ushered Danny inside.

"Hi. I had an argument with my parents. Can I spend the rest of the holidays here?"

* * *

 **AN:** I actually Googled when the sun rose in December in Illinois. I must say, the result (around seven o'clock in the morning) made me extremely jealous. I live too far up north.


	25. Christmas

**Christmas**

Mrs. Weasley stared at Danny in silence.

When a few seconds had passed, Danny took that as an invitation to go into the kitchen.

The Weasley kids, Harry and a man Danny hadn't met before sat around the table.

"Would you like some lunch?" Mrs. Weasley, still not sure how to handle the situation, fell back into her motherly personality.

"I just had breakfast. You know, time zones."

Fred and George shared a look. "So, you just got back from the States?"

"Yeah, I figured I'd go somewhere where my parents couldn't follow, but the government had our house under surveillance... I didn't have anywhere to stay..." Danny shut his mouth to stop his rambling. His hand was rubbing at the back of his neck, and he pulled it away when he noticed.

Mrs. Weasley sat down, and Danny stole one of the empty chairs. There weren't many of them, but they were there. Incidentally, he wound up sitting next to the gaunt stranger.

"Danny Fenton." Danny held out his hand.

"Sirius Black." He had a firm grip.

"I think I've seen your face on a wanted poster."

"Yeah, murder."

"Innocent?"

"Nah." Mr. Black said it casually, while taking a big bite of his lunch.

Danny couldn't stop the widening of his eyes, or the way his smile grew strained. His hand wrapped around his wand.

Everybody except for Mrs. Weasley laughed at Danny's expression. Ginny tried to hide her giggles, but was unsuccessful.

Mr. Black chuckled and put a hand on Danny's shoulder. "I'm innocent."

"Okay, I deserved that." Danny smiled as apologetically as he could, and moved his hand from his wand to take out the flask he'd bought. It was filled with water.

Ron looked very unimpressed.

"Christmas present from me, to me." Danny shrugged.

"You spent _one hour_ with Moody. One hour."

"He's a smart guy," defended Danny.

Ron only rolled his eyes in reply. Fred elbowed him in the side.

"Considering..." Fred glanced towards Mrs. Weasley, as if he didn't want her to overhear. "The thing with that letter, I'd say Danny has earned himself the right to be paranoid."

 _'Does he mean the whole_ catchingfire _thing? People really seem to think that was Vlad's fault...'_

Ron nodded at his brother.

"So, Danny..." Mrs. Weasley was hesitant. "What's this about you not wanting to go back to your parents? I'm sure they're worried about you..."

"They know what they did." Danny took another sip of water, to stop himself from glaring at Mrs. Weasley. He turned slightly away from her, which only made his irritation all the more clear to the person on his other side, Mr. Black.

"Let him be," said Mr. Black. "Merlin knows there were times when _I_ needed to get away from my parents, when I was his age. Besides, it's _my_ house. I say he can stay."

Danny gave Mr. Black a small, grateful smile.

* * *

Ever so slowly, Danny felt himself winding down.

After a few days, they were joined by Hermione.

It was comfortable, which was why Danny _didn't_ end up hexing anyone when he was cornered and pushed into Harry and Ron's room.

Still, being suddenly surrounded by Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George was a little disconcerting.

"Hi?" Danny gave them a wary smile.

"Tell us everything you know about the Department of Mysteries." Harry's eyes were hard, unrelenting.

Danny choked on his own tongue. "What!? No! Why!?"

Ron gestured for Danny to sit down on his bed, and Danny gratefully complied. Ron sat down next to him, while the twins and Harry took Harry's bed. The girls took up position by the door, with Ginny listening for footsteps.

"Voldemort is looking for something in there."

The Weasleys and Hermione all flinched at the name.

"A weapon, something he didn't have the last time. That's why Mr. Weasley was there, the Order's been guarding it." Harry's explanation was to the point, but explained absolutely nothing.

Voldemort wanted a weapon... from the Department of Mysteries? That didn't really make sense, in more than one way. And he wasn't supposed to tell outsiders about what happened in there... He had taken an Unbreakable Vow and everything.

Of course, Unbreakable Vows were perfectly breakable as long as you could come back from the dead whenever you wanted.

Danny opened and closed his mouth a few times without making any noise. Finally, he closed his eyes and ran a hand over his face.

"I guess that's why they wanted my parents to join the Order, huh?"

"Probably." George shrugged.

Danny sighed. It wasn't like he really cared about being sworn to secrecy, it was just a good excuse to use when he didn't want to answer questions. And considering how his parents had joined the Order, it seemed they didn't mind spilling trade secrets either. Besides, defeating Voldemort was more important than... well, pretty much anything.

"Do you even know what the purpose of the Department of Mysteries is?" Danny looked up, and four similar expressions of mild confusion met him. "Of course not, it's all Unspeakable. Okay... The Department of Mysteries was created to research the most fundamental concepts of magic."

Danny felt a tingle as the Vow took effect. He pushed it away, just like he would push away the cold when he turned from ghost to human. It worked.

"What, like Charms and Transfiguration?" Ron tilted his head slightly in thought.

"Is anyone working on a stronger killing curse?" Harry leaned forward.

"No. It's about understanding Time, Thoughts, Love... Stuff like that." He purposely excluded Death, because there was no way he was explaining the fine points of the Veil and the Realm beyond, and why neither made a good weapon, especially not to a bunch of kids. Never mind that they were all roughly Danny's age.

Hermione nodded, her eyes clouded with thought.

"Anything that would work as a weapon?" Harry was on the trail like a bloodhound.

"Not that I can think of..." Danny did a mental run-down of everything he'd seen in the Department. "Do you reckon he's willing to go through puberty again, to extend his lifespan?"

Not to mention deal with all of his followers having to obey a younger version of himself. That sort of thing could ruin one's credibility as a Dark Lord.

"No." Harry shook his head. "If he wanted to, he could have done that when he got a new body last year. Besides, we're looking for a _weapon._ "

Danny nodded, still thinking and mumbling mostly to himself. "A time-turner wouldn't work, you can't really _change_ time with one of those..."

Hermione, Harry and Ron nodded with understanding, while the twins just looked at each other and shrugged. Ginny seemed slightly annoyed at her own ignorance.

Danny frowned, growing annoyed with how he couldn't help, when he remembered what Mr. Work had said, or started to say, that one time.

"Speaking of Voldemort."

Five identical gasps.

"I have a friend who's a Seer, and he sort of implied that..."

Hermione gave an unbelieving snort, but didn't comment.

Harry looked hopeful.

What were the words Work had used? Danny couldn't remember. Something about Voldemort's survival being similar to Danny's own... Danny had survived by his soul spitting into two, only one part of it dying and turning into a ghost, while the other remained alive and human. Though he couldn't imagine how such a process would work without the involvement of an opening Veil...

"Either Voldemorts soul is broken into pieces, or he's drunk unicorn blood."

The hope in Harry's eyes died. "It's the unicorn blood. He did that during my first year at Hogwarts."

Danny shrugged, and they let the subject drop.

"In any case, I can't really think of anything in the Department that would work as a weapon. That's not what we're working towards... Though I guess I can imagine my parents creating a bunch of weird weaponry..."

Danny blinked away the mental images of his dad building trident where the points were all wands, and waving it around enthusiastically during dinner.

"Sorry, I've got nothing."

Hermione frowned. "Then what is the Order guarding?"

"I don't know, maybe the jar full of brains?" Danny shrugged.

"The _what?"_

* * *

 **AN:** Calling Sirius "Mr. Black" is weird.


	26. Back to School

**Back** **to** **School**

After everything that had happened, Danny wasn't sure of whether he was happy to be back to routine or not.

The reception he'd gotten when he showed up in the Hufflepuff common room was chilly. Ernie, Hannah and Justin had ignored him.

Danny gulped, steeling himself. He'd left without working things out with Ernie, and he felt a burning need to apologize and try to make things right.

But what would he say? Ernie having lousy aim wasn't untrue, even though he'd picked the worst possible way to say it.

Danny shuffled his feet, before finally moving over to the trio.

Hannah and Justin shared a look, but neither said anything as Danny practically loomed over them.

Ernie was making a good job of acting casual, but he couldn't stop himself from glancing at Danny. Finally, he set down the book he'd been pretending to read and looked Danny head on.

"You just disappeared before Christmas. Professor Sprout had to come and tell us you were alright. Where did you go?" Ernie had a commanding tone of voice.

The demand for an explanation made Danny's shoulders tense and his hands clench. There was no way he could tell them that he'd been at a secret headquarter because he'd sneaked out during the night and ended up saving some guy's life.

Forgetting all about wanting to apologize, Danny pushed his reply out between gritted teeth. "None of your business."

Ernie's eyes hardened and he picked up his book so that it hid his face, pointedly ignoring Danny.

Danny took the hint and left.

Not coming back to Hogwarts next year sounded more and more appealing.

* * *

With the Hufflepuff trio avoiding Danny, and all his other friends hanging out in the Gryffindor tower, it was lonely.

Since he wasn't quite welcome in the common room, Danny was walking around the halls.

At least it gave him some time to sort out his emotions.

Mainly, he felt violated. How _dare_ his parents make him perform the Darkest of arts?

Sure, they had only been trying to save his life... But they must have realised how he'd feel about it. Why else keep it secret?

Danny hadn't minded being half-ghost, most of the time. The opening of the Fenton Veil had been killing him, the moment of death stretched out due to the Veil's properties, but he'd come out of it more-or-less alright. Sure, his soul was technically in two pieces since only half of it had completed the transition into ghost, but since both pieces were still in his body it was probably okay? In any case, that was just the way things were and he refused to think about it too closely.

However, to find out that the only reason the rest of him hadn't gone ghost was because of unicorn blood... It sickened him, and he couldn't ignore it the same way he could his broken soul. His thoughts kept returning to it, like picking at a scab.

 _'And here I thought I was the reigning champion at ignoring uncomfortable truths.'_

Danny smiled wryly to himself.

On the other hand, there was Vlad. While Vlad's motives were less than pure, and he had done some horrible things in the past...

Despite all that, Danny sort of trusted him.

Maybe?

A little.

More than he trusted his parents, at least.

Danny stopped by a window, overlooking the grounds. The perfect white blanket of snow was much thicker than Amity Park's on the town's snowiest days.

The chill seeped through the thin window, and when Danny leaned the tips of his fingers against the pane tiny swirls of frost grew on the glass.

Danny exhaled his sigh, and the air fogged in front of his face.

When he turned around, Sir Nicholas was there.

"Danny," Nicholas gave a short bow. "Are you alright? You seem distraught."

"I'm fine. No, wait, that's a lie." Danny's lips twitched into a tired smile and he slumped against the wall. "Actually, I could use some advice."

"Go ahead." Nicholas nodded, serious.

"What's better, doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, or the right thing for the wrong reasons?"

"Well," Nicholas put a finger to his chin as he thought. "The wrong thing is still the wrong thing, no matter how noble your intentions..."

 _'Thank you.'_ It felt vindicating, to hear it from somebody other than Vlad.

"It's always better to forgive and forget, in my book." The Fat Friar, Hufflepuff's house ghost came around the corner, obviously having overheard at least part of the conversation.

"Maybe I would, if they actually _apologized,_ instead of coming up with excuses." Danny muttered mostly to himself.

"Some things cannot be forgiven." The sentence was little more than a hoarse whisper, signalling the arrival of yet another ghost. The Bloody Baron inclined his head in greeting to Sir Nicholas and Danny as he caught up with the Friar. The two ghosts had obviously been in conversation before the Friar flew off to dispense advice.

"Everybody makes mistakes." The Friar clasped his hands together. "If they had the best intentions, you can trust them to try to do the right thing in the future."

It was a good point. Aside from their lack of respect for any creature that wasn't sapient, his parents weren't bad people.

Of course, said lack of respect meant they didn't see anything wrong about killing a unicorn to write runes in its blood. That was a pretty big thing to dismiss. If anything, Danny was probably lucky his parents realised that ghosts were sapient. If they didn't... Danny had to suppress a shudder.

"On the other hand, somebody who's doing the right thing for the wrong reasons will stop doing the right thing as soon as it doesn't suit them anymore." Nick nodded to himself as he reasoned.

That was true. While his parents generally tried to do what was right, Vlad generally tried to do what was best for Vlad.

"I guess." Danny frowned. He couldn't put too much trust into what the ghosts were saying. It was easy to make blanket statements when you didn't have the whole picture. And it was easy to say _forgive and forget_ when you weren't the one who'd been wronged. "Thanks. I should get to the library."

Despite Danny meaning that as a farewell, none of the ghosts took the hint.

"We'll walk you." Sir Nicholas ignored his own inability to walk. "Whenever I've seen you around lately, you've been alone. You could do with some company. Now, let's talk about happier things."

The Friar took that to heart and started telling an interesting story about what had happened on Sir Nicholas' deathday party a couple of years prior. It was punctuated by commentary from Nicholas, while the Baron merely nodded at appropriate places.

Danny laughed at a vivid description of the Headless Hunt crashing the party.

* * *

Danny stayed in the library until it closed, mostly to avoid going back to the common room.

As per his usual luck, he might as well not have bothered, because when he got back the Hufflepuff trio were still up and revising their homework for potions.

They were the only ones there, with the rest of the House already having retreated for the night. They were still ignoring him.

Danny's stomach tied itself into figurative knots.

"I'm sorry."

The words came out louder than he'd intended, for all that he was standing on the other side of the room.

Danny wrung his hands together. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I said. When you asked about the ice I panicked, and I didn't think things through."

Ernie put down his quill carefully, and turned to look Danny in the face.

Danny took that as an invitation to walk over to the group.

"Why would you panic about something like that?" Ernie furrowed his eyebrows.

"I, erm, well... You see, my parents work at the Ministry is confidential. And that was related to that. I didn't think the spell would work, and that's the real reason I can't teach it to you."

Ernie nodded gravely.

"And that's what I was doing over the break to. It's all related to stuff I'm not allowed to say, because I took an oath of confidentiality when I started helping them out."

That he didn't particularly _care_ about said oath, and had broken it when he talked to the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione, was a completely different matter.

"But still, I'm sorry. I've been dealing with this all wrong, when I could have just _told_ you this to begin with."

"Yeah you have." Ernie frowned, before moving over so that there was room in the sofa. "Did you finish your essay for Snape?"

"Yeah, but it's not very good." Danny smiled and sat down, pulling the parchment from his bag.

And just like that, he had friends in Hufflepuff again.

* * *

 **AN** : Calling Nearly-Headless Nick "Sir Nicholas" isn't as weird as calling Sirius "Mr. Black."


	27. Think Happy Thoughts

**AN:** I'm not sure how this fits in the canon timeline, and frankly, I don't care. This is where this chapter needed to be in this story.

* * *

 **Think** **Happy** **Thoughts**

The Room of Requirement was filling up with the silver light of many Patroni.

Danny's wand was stubbornly refusing to even release the mist that surrounded Justin. Not to mention the boar that Ernie had created.

 _'I should have a ghost fly by, just so I can use the fog to pretend I'm not this much worse than everyone else.'_

"Think of the happiest thing you can remember, let it fill you up." Harry's advice was audible, even from across the room.

 _'My happiest memory...'_

That was the problem.

All Danny's happy memories seemed to either involve his parents or Sam.

The bitter after-taste that spread through his mouth when he thought about them wasn't conductive to casting the Patronus Charm.

 _'Don't I have something with_ only _Tuck? Or Jazz?'_

Danny felt like banging his head against the wall.

 _'Maybe something from the Infinite Realms?'_

Whenever he went into the Realms, it was sure to be an adventure, but a lot of them had been happy too.

Ghosts were stagnant, not equipped to change themselves without outside influence. As a result, Danny's very presence had shaken up things wherever he went.

Exhibit A, that time he'd helped the medieval ghosts put Princess Dorathea on the throne. Her brother had been a terrible ruler, and Danny's involvement had made afterlife better for everyone involved. (Except Prince Aragon, but really, who cares?) Afterwards, there had been a huge party. (Or what medieval ghosts thought of as a party, but there had been food and dancing so Danny felt that it counted.)

Trying to capture the memory, Danny closed his eyes and went through the motions of the spell.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Nothing happened.

Danny felt like swearing.

He glared at his wand, which was unfair since it wasn't the wand's fault. It was just easier to glare at the stick of wood than his memories.

 _'Wasn't it happy enough, is that it?'_

He sighed, before clearing his mind again. His lessons in Occlumency were useful, for what felt like the first time.

 _'I don't think I have anything better.'_

Unbidden, the image of his dad taking him fishing rose in his mind.

Danny pushed it away, only for it to be replaced by a memory from Amity Park. His mother had baked cookies, but a much young Danny had nagged Jazz (before she'd grown up and become boring) into helping him steal them before dinner. His dad had walked in on them, and ended up joining in on the theft. After they had finished up all the cookies before his mom came back to the kitchen. She had taken one long look at each face, covered in crumples and chocolate, before she started laughing.

Danny's lips twitched into a smile, before a scowl overtook his features.

 _'It's not that I don't_ want _to forgive them. It's just...'_

They hadn't apologized.

It was with a heavy heart he admitted it to himself, while he hadn't given them much opportunity to apologize, it said _something_ that their initial reaction was to try to explain themselves. To make him see things their way, rather than to try to understand Danny's emotions.

Didn't they realise that they'd hurt him?

 _'If they didn't, they wouldn't have kept it a secret.'_

The bitter taste in his mouth was back again.

 _'This isn't working. My thoughts are going in circles.'_

Time for some more Occlumency practice.

Danny slowly cleared his mind.

 _'What do I want?'_

He wanted everything to go back to how it was, before he found out about the unicorn blood.

Danny didn't need to be a Seer to know that _that_ wasn't going to happen. He didn't trust his parents anymore, no matter what Sir Nicholas said.

Thinking about what they had done didn't hurt, nor did it ignite the remaining embers of his burning anger, but rather made him feel cold and numb inside.

Jazz would probably tell him that was a bad thing.

Jazz would also be able to help him sort out his emotions, and his relationship to their parents. She was good like that.

However, he didn't want to tell her. Didn't want her to know that he'd drunk unicorn blood. What if she decided he was a Dark Wizard?

Danny couldn't stand the idea of his sister thinking something like that about him.

 _'This_ really _isn't working.'_

Danny cleared out his mind. Again.

It was getting tiresome.

 _'I need a different approach.'_

Did the unicorn blood make him a Dark Wizard?

His initial response was 'no', but it didn't matter to the unicorn that Danny hadn't wanted it to die.

Still, it wasn't _Danny's_ actions that had killed it.

 _'Being a Dark Wizard_ has _to be something you choose for yourself.'_ Danny bit his lip. _'I can choose to be a good person, despite everything that has happened. I'm not Dark. I won't_ let _myself be Dark.'_

Follow-up question, did the unicorn blood make _his parents_ Dark _?_

Counter question, did Danny care?

 _'Of course I do.'_

A small, guilty part of his heart was whispering otherwise.

Even if they were Dark, they were still his parents. And that mattered.

They were still the people who had taken him to the muggle planetarium on their vacation. They were still the same people that featured in his most happy memories. That didn't change, because that couldn't change.

But that just made their betrayal all the worse.

Danny sighed. He wasn't going to do any progress with the Patronus Charm when he was feeling like this.

* * *

Spring had come to Hogwarts. The snow had melted away, leaving room for colour to return to the previously black-and-white landscape.

Danny had missed green.

Sure, the insistent spring showers were kind of a downer... Danny laughed at his unintentional pun, as he walked through the wonderfully dry corridors. The air still smelled of rain, and was heavy with humidity, but at least his hair didn't cling to his face like it had on the members of the Quidditch team when they got back from practice.

Not being on the team had its perks.

The week before, a announcement had shown up on the notice board, that all fifth year students would meet with their Head of House for career evaluation.

The week before _that_ , the tables of common room had filled up with advertisements for different types of wizarding jobs. There were pamphlets about everything from curse-breaking to teaching.

Ernie had somehow ended up panicking, which was weird to see from someone who was usually so self-assured, because he realised what kind of grades he needed to pull in order to get a career at Gringotts.

Hannah had explained in a very small voice that she hadn't given her future much thought, but that she'd like a job where she was surrounded by people.

Justin had shrugged and gone on with his business as usual.

As Danny knocked on the door to Professor Sprout's office, a small room on the first floor, he knew what he was going to say.

"Come in."

Professor Sprout looked decidedly out-of-place sitting behind a desk. That the room contained no less than three potted plants helped lessen the shock of it. The room smelled of earth and green, and not just as a side-effect of spring arriving.

"So, Mr. Fenton. Have you given any thought to your future?" She gestured for him to sit.

Danny felt like that was a rather ridiculous question, considering how every single conversation the fifth year students of Hogwarts had engaged in the last _month_ had been about their future careers.

"I want to get into Astronomy."

Professor Sprout shuffled some papers, and made a small humming noise. "Well, with your grade its certainly not impossible. Professor Sinistra claims you do excellent work. Actually, what she _said_ was that you were practically at N.E.W.T.-level already..."

Danny didn't even try to stop the grin that was building on his face.

"Well, it wouldn't do to forsake the other subjects. For your N.E.W.T.s, I'd suggest you also take Charms and Defence, you never know when that becomes handy."

Danny nodded.

"I'd also recommend Potions, but Professor Snape doesn't accept anyone who achieves less than an Outstanding on their O.W.L.s."

Danny grimaced. "I don't think I'll do that."

For all the kindness in her eyes, Professor Sprout didn't seem to think that either. She quickly changed the subject, to talk about other things that, while maybe not helpful in a job pertaining to Astronomy, would probably be generally useful for any wizard to know.

Professor Sprout was disappointed that Danny hadn't continued with Arithmancy, but he couldn't bring himself to feel sad about it.

He left her office with something of a plan for what he was going to do the following year.

* * *

 **AN** : Danny's Patronus would be Cujo, if he could get the spell to actually work.

I'm not going to include all the canon plot about Umbridge shutting down DA, or getting Dumbledore kicked out. As such, spring turns into summer _really_ quickly in this fic.


	28. Fire

**Fire**

Danny missed DA. After Umbridge had found out about it, and consequently stolen Dumbledore's job, there was no way to continue the club.

Which meant Danny had no opportunity to practice his weird, ghostly spells. Seeing Vlad effortlessly lighting a fire with the non-vocal magic had made Danny want to learn it even more.

Not that practising during DA, where people could see him, had been a good idea to begin with. His argument with Ernie certainly proved that.

However, now that the DA wasn't using the Room of Requirement, it was the perfect place to hide his practising.

 _'I need somewhere I can practice, where nobody will find me, where it doesn't matter if I destroy a bunch of stuff.'_

Danny paced through the corridor, repeating the thought to himself.

 _'Somewhere I can destroy stuff without anyone noticing.'_

As he passed the stretch of wall for the third time, a door appeared. Danny went through it before anyone could come through the corridor and see him.

Rather than the orderly room where DA had practised defensive spells, Danny found himself in a big room filled with stuff.

He wandered through one of the walkways, aka the only part of the floor not covered by junk. The room seemingly held everything one could imagine, from tiaras to books to several larger pieces of furniture.

 _'This could work.'_

Danny smiled, and climbed up on a shaking chair.

 _'Let's see if I can get some green fire going on.'_

Danny raised his wand, and pointed it away from the door – if he managed to set the room on fire, and wasn't able to put it out with an aguamenti, he didn't want to end up trapped in the burning room. Ghostly ability to drop through the floor or not.

Danny closed his eyes and tried to remember everything he knew about the ghostly fire.

He had been angry when it happened. Vlad hadn't seemed like he had needed to focus on getting angry or anything like that, but in Danny's experience Vlad was always angry.

 _'Maybe I can learn how to do this without getting angry?'_

Of course, he didn't know how to do it while angry either.

 _'First things first.'_

Danny focused on the coldness in the chest, pulled it out and directed it through his wand.

The bookcase he had been aiming at was covered in ice.

 _'At least I'm figuring out_ that _part of these powers, but I wanted fire.'_

Danny pouted slightly and leaned back, causing the chair he was standing on to rock unsteadily.

Somewhere further inside the room, something moved.

Danny stiffened and quietly jumped down to the floor, staying low so whatever it was that had made that sound wouldn't see him.

There was a soft scraping noise, sounding like claws against wood.

Danny's knuckles whitened as he gripped his wand harder.

He moved towards the sound.

 _'It's not a ghost, I would have sensed it.'_

Since it didn't come from the direction of door, who- or whatever it was must have already been inside when Danny entered.

 _'I don't like this. If it's a student they_ saw _me, if it isn't...'_

He couldn't see anybody, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.

One of the larger cabinets moved slightly.

 _'Found you.'_

The door was slightly ajar, so whomever was inside would be able to see Danny.

"Just come out, we can talk about this like civilised people."

The wardrobe shook slightly, as if whomever was inside had crashed into the wall during an attempt to hide better.

"I know you're in there."

Danny approached slowly, hand around his wand, and poked the door open with his foot.

"Lumos."

The person inside closed his eyes at the sudden light. When he saw that it was a person, Danny lowered the beam slightly and backed away so he could step out of the wardrobe.

It was when the guy stepped out into the light, and straightened his back to tower over Danny, that Danny realised that something was wrong.

 _'He's too old to be a seventh year.'_

The guy looked to be in his twenties, with pitch black hair and a muscular build. He opened his eyes, as they got used to the light. They were red.

Danny took a small, involuntary step back.

He recognized that face.

The older Danny smiled. There was a silvery stain by his mouth, of what could only be unicorn blood. He licked it up, his tongue much too long, without breaking eye-contact with the young Danny. His entire being radiated maliciousness.

"Who are you?" Danny's eyes were wide.

"You know. I'm what you'll become."

"N-no! I won't!"

"It's only a matter of time."

"No!" Danny's voice stopped shaking, but he took another step back. "I choose who I am!"

"It's much too late for that. You drank the unicorn blood. The minute, the _second,_ it passed your lips, you became cursed. There's no going back from that. I'm inevitable."

Danny's hands were shaking, he kept his wand his as a barrier between them. "Stay back! I'm warning you!"

The young man seemed amused. He took a single step forward.

The tip of Danny's wand exploded with green fire.

The older Danny wasn't able to dodge the attack. The flames spread through his robes, which shrank back into the creature, black turning colourful. The face which so resembled Danny's turned into a clown's make-up. Half a second, the creature was a clown, before wringing in agony as the flames ate at it, the clown was replaced with a giant spider, which was replaced with a snake.

The entire time, the thing was screaming. It's voice changed in pitch as it transformed.

Danny backed away further, until his back his a bookcase.

The creature glared at Danny, with eyes that glowed green from the fire that surrounded it, before it died. The ashes, still burning with green embers, didn't resemble much of anything.

The creature's dying screams were echoing in Danny's ears long after they stopped.

"It was a boggart." Danny collapsed, as his knees refused to cooperate anymore. "Just a boggart."

He was breathing heavily, his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

A broken laugh escaped his lips. "I got the fire to work again."

* * *

Summer was just around the corner. The stress of having to consider their future careers turned into the stress of preparing for the exams which would decide whether they would get a chance at working where they wanted to.

Ernie and Hannah handled the stress _extremely_ poorly. Not that Danny or Justin was doing that much better.

The four of them were sitting at breakfast, rereading their notes from class one last time, when the owls arrived. Considering his frosty relationship with the only people who regularly sent him mail, Danny ignored the birds in favour of his Potions textbook. He ate his cereal without looking away from the print.

Which was why he jumped in his seat when Maddie the owl landed in front of him.

Ernie, Justin and Hannah interrupted their reading to glare at the bird, but Danny hardly noticed that as he took the offered letter.

"Is that safe?" Hannah asked with a small voice, looking from Danny to Maddie.

"Safe?"

"Isn't that the owl which delivered _the letter_?" Hannah fidgeted.

Danny blinked.

"You know, the one that caught fire?"

"Well... yes."

"Hermione Granger told us all about it, you know," said Ernie, with a certain air of smug superiority. "We know that its from someone who doesn't think that the descendant of witch-hunters should attend Hogwarts."

"Wha-"

"And they thought setting you on fire would be ironic punishment," finished Justin, his wide eyes never leaving the envelope.

 _'Hogwarts' rumour mill is scary. Inaccurate, but scary.'_

"If it makes you feel better, I'll read it while holding it over a fireplace? If it starts to burn, I'll just drop it."

Judging from the looks he was getting, that did _not_ , in fact, make anybody feel better about the situation.

"You know what, I'm just gonna read it anyway. If you want to sit with your wands pointed against it while I do so, that's fine by me."

Hannah grabbed onto the nearest glass of pumpkin juice.

Danny ignored his classmates as he opened the letter and skimmed through the contents. Vlad wanted to meet him on the other side of the Veil the evening after Danny's last exam.

* * *

 **AN:** I'm nearing the end of this story, so I sat down and asked myself 'What have I missed?' As you can tell, the answer was boggarts. If I'd realised that sooner, I would have had Danny interact with the one in Grimauld Place. I should probably have had the book at hand while I wrote the Christmas chapters, because I feel like I missed a couple of opportunities. Well, too late for that now. The next chapter is the beginning of the end.

While Danny's rational mind doesn't think he's necessarily as Dark Wizard, his deepest darkest fears don't agree.


	29. Not a Ghost

**Not a Ghost**

The hallways were filled with people.

That was a problem.

Danny had just finished his last exam, and he didn't have the patience to deal with peoplerunning around being potential witnesses.

 _'I need to get to the Ministry.'_

Vlad had sent him a letter, asking for an answer regarding his offer for Danny to come back to Amity Park to live with him.

Danny wasn't about to just ignore it, he _needed_ to talk to Vlad in person.

However, getting into Umbridge's office before bedtime seemed impossible.

 _'You'd_ think _Vlad, Mr. I'm-So-Much-Smarter-Than-You, would realise that.'_

Considering how Umbridge hadn't been able to move into Dumbledore's old office, using that fireplace would have been an option – except the Ministry apparently monitored every fireplace in Hogwarts _except_ Umbridge's.

 _'Of course anyone willing to hire Mom and Dad would be massive jerks. This is why they should have remained self-employed.'_

It was a good thing he hadn't been planning on taking over the family business, no matter how inviting spending time by the Veil sounded.

 _'I'm getting distracted... But maybe what I need_ is _a distraction.'_

If he could get Umbridge out of her office, he would only need a moment to slip through the door and use the fireplace. He already knew where she kept her Floo powder.

 _'This would be so much easier if the twins hadn't left, I could ask them for help.'_

Danny bit his lip. Could he really risk asking the Hufflepuffs to create a distraction? While they had been willing to join the DA, that had mostly been about learning Defence Against the Dark Arts, not about sticking it to Umbridge.

If only there was another troublemaker still around.

 _'Wait a second... There is.'_

Danny smirked.

* * *

A poltergeist was just close enough to a ghost that Danny could sense it, but just different enough that it felt _different._

As such, finding Peeves was much easier than finding any particular ghost in the school.

Peeves, someone who Danny had successfully avoided the entire school year, was plugging up a toilet with hand towels.

"Hey, wanna help me piss off Umbridge?"

The poltergeist's answering grin wasn't particularly nice.

* * *

Danny spied on Umbridge through her ceiling. He stuck his head through the floor above her, and made sure to stay behind the pink curtains as much as possible.

There was an astoundingly large explosion from outside, which told Danny that the fireworks he had given to Peeves was being put to good use. It felt bad to imitate Fred and George's thing, but he didn't have the energy or time needed to come up with something better.

When Umbridge ran out of the room, Danny allowed himself to fully fall through the floor. He grabbed onto the curtain to cushion his fall, effectively stopping himself from going splash against the ground.

Getting to the Ministry after that was as simple as throwing a pinch of powder in the fireplace.

The Ministry was still more-or-less filled with people, but Danny put on his best 'I know what I'm doing and I'm allowed to be here' face, and nobody bothered him.

It probably helped that he'd changed out of his school uniform.

As such, Danny simply walked into the Department of Mysteries.

It was late enough that his parents had gone home for the day, and the Death Room was abandoned.

As Danny looked at the metal closed doors on the Veil, he couldn't help but wonder if they had been made specifically to keep Vlad from coming through.

 _'Nah, he could just use the floo like a normal person. And Dad can get pretty clumsy, sometimes...'_

Danny shook his head and opened the doors, stepping through them and letting the part of him that was a ghost take over.

It felt like dunking his head in ice water, reinvigorating and refreshing, with just a hint of bone-chilling cold.

"Vlad?" Danny looked around the empty room, which so closely resembled the one he had stepped out of. "Am I early?"

"No, my boy. You are right on time."

Danny spun around, to find Vlad standing by the door to the outside. The man let it fall close behind him, having obviously just come through.

"So, have you given any thought to my offer?" Vlad put his hands behind his back, in a way that anyone other than Danny (and probably Mr. Moody) would find disarming.

"I have." Danny wrung his hands together. "And I'm gonna have to pass."

"What? Why?" Vlad's eyes widened slightly with shock before narrowing in anger.

"I'm gonna give my parents a second chance."

"You were their second chance!"

Danny took a small step backwards at Vlad's outburst, bringing him closer to the Veil and a quick get-away.

Vlad seemed to notice, because he took a slow, shuddering breath to calm himself down.

"Listen... I know my parents have done some horrible things, to you too. I haven't forgiven them either. But-"

Vlad scoffed. "But what? If not for their incompetence, neither one of us would have been forced to drink unicorn blood."

"But they are my parents. _Your_ friends."

"Former friends," corrected Vlad. "They stopped being my friends when they left me to die."

"Wait, what? I thought they made you drink unicorn blood, same as with me." Danny titled his head.

Vlad laughed, but there was no mirth to it. "Oh no, Little Badger. My accident was different from yours. I spent _weeks_ slowly dying."

Danny couldn't stop himself from frowning as he imagined the pain of the Accident, stretched out over several weeks.

"While the Healers tried everything, nothing worked. Your parents didn't even visit me at the hospital. I had to fix myself. I escaped, and found the way to stop death from taking me on my own."

"You-" Danny stuttered. "You _chose_ this!?"

"They left me no choice!"

"You just didn't like your options! You could have died, you could have _not_ used some of the Darkest magic available. You chose _this_!" Danny gestured towards the greyscale surroundings, and their own silvery forms.

Vlad put two fingers at the bridge of his nose as he tried to regain control.

"And then you told my parents how you survived." Danny dragged a hand over his face.

"They asked." Vlad smiled thinly. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes. "As if they actually cared."

Danny clenched his fists.

"Daniel." Vlad hesitated, things very obviously not going how he had planned. "You shouldn't just _ignore_ what they did to you."

"I'm not," defended Danny.

"Yes you are." Vlad rolled his eyes. "You can't seriously _trust them_ , after everything that happened."

Danny looked away. His confession came out as little more than a whisper. "I don't."

A lot of the tension left Vlad's shoulders, and something calculating passed behind his eyes.

Danny fidgeted under the intense look Vlad was giving him.

"Daniel." Vlad started floating down the stairs of the amphitheatre. "Surely you realise that you can't stay with them?"

Danny tensed slightly as Vlad got closer, but the man kept a comfortable distance between them. If Vlad tried to charge at Danny, to bring him into a ghostly fistfight, Danny would have time to escape through the Veil.

"I can and I will." Danny got the words out through clenched teeth, glaring at Vlad to convey his determination. "You really _are_ a fruitloop if you think-"

"You ungrateful _brat_!"

Danny jumped slightly at the yell, too shocked to immediately retreat.

Vlad was quick to utilize Danny's moment of distraction, pulling up his wand and in one smooth motion pointing it at Danny. "Incarcerous!"

Thick ropes wrapped themselves around Danny, tying him down and knocking him over – away from the fluttering fabric of the Veil.

" _Magic_!? But ghosts can't use magic!" Danny's eyes widened as he struggled against the bindings, but they were as ghostly as he was.

Danny had gotten into many fights in the Realms. Fistfights, sword fights, even the occasional missile fight, but nobody had ever used magic against him on this side of the Veil – because nobody _could._ Wizards lost their magic when they died. There was no need to be on guard against magical attacks in the Realms.

"We're not ghosts, Daniel. Surely you haven't forgotten that?"

* * *

 **AN:** Some sort of internet cookie goes to the guest who managed to figure out what was up with Vlad's accident in a review on chapter 26. (I hope you like imaginary chocolate chips)


	30. Untrustworthy

**Untrustworthy**

The air in the twisted reflection of the Death Chamber in the Infinite Realms stood still. Even the fluttering folds of the Veil seemed slower than usual.

Danny hit the ground hard as magical ropes wrapped themselves around him, the one movement in the still room. The sound of his fall echoed back at him, muffled and barely recognizable.

"You _ungrateful_ brat." Vlad repeated himself as he closed the distance between them, sounding spiteful and bitter. "After everything I offered you, after everything I did for you, you'd go back to your _parents_?"

Danny pushed himself up the best he could, trying to stand. Vlad put a stop to that by putting a foot on Danny's chest and pushing him down again.

Vlad smirked, but there was not even any of his usual self-satisfied smugness to it. It was just an empty twitch of the lips. His eyes were hard and burning with anger.

Danny tried to reach his wand, even though he wasn't sure on how to use his magic in ghost form, but his squirming only made Vlad push down harder on his chest.

"I worked _so hard_ to get you away from them." Vlad sighed. "I was sure you'd stay in Amity to finish school."

Danny's eyes widened with realisation. "It was you! You're the one who told the Aurors about our Veil!"

"Yes. I'm the one who got your parents exiled." Vlad laughed, his voice empty of emotion. "An anonymous tip here, a few strings pulled as Mayor there... Your oaf of a father actually _thanked_ me, for helping resolve the situation."

Danny scowled.

"I thought you would stay in Amity Park, with your friends. I guess I misjudged how much you care for them."

"You didn't." Danny couldn't stop himself from getting defensive, even when the subject matter was how he'd managed to not fall into Vlad's trap. "Mom wouldn't let me."

"Ah, that explains it." Vlad smirked smugly. "I should have known, I know you better than that."

"You don't know me at all."

Vlad rolled his eyes. "I'm the only one who could possibly hope to understand you."

"If you knew me, you'd know I'd never turn from my parents. They're my family, and I am a Hufflepuff!"

"That silly loyalty of yours again? Don't you realise that they don't deserve it!?"

"But _you_ do?" Danny snorted.

"Of course." Vlad leaned back a bit, lightening the load on Danny's chest. His voice softened, to something resembling kindness. "We're alike. Both of us were betrayed by Jack and Maddie, we were both forced to drink the unicorn blood."

"You weren't-"

"We're both trapped in this... half-existence." Vlad pushed on, ignoring Danny. "We're neither human nor ghost, yet we are _both_. You and I are the only ones who are like this. I'm the only one who can help you achieve your potential. With my knowledge and resources..."

"I don't care!" Danny cut him off, tiring of the same old arguments. "I've said it before and I'll say it again, I won't join you."

Vlad pushed down his foot harder in response.

"I thought I could reason with you, make you see the truth," sighed Vlad. "Obviously, I was mistaken. Oh well, this is why adults are in charge of children."

There was something chilling about the way he said the last part.

"I'm sure you'll come to understand that I'm only doing this for your own good." Vlad pulled out his wand again and pointed it towards Danny.

Vlad's jaw was set, his eyes hard. He was being completely serious.

"Imperio."

With a single thought, Danny willed himself back to life. The ghostly ropes fell through his human body. Before the spell could hit him, Danny rolled to the side.

Vlad stumbled as his footrest was removed, but regained balance quickly since didn't actually have to obey gravity in ghost form.

Danny pulled out his wand and cast the only spell he knew which worked on ghosts. "Skurge!"

Vlad dodged, and the anti-ectoplasmic spell hit one of the benches behind him. The bench started to melt, as if it had been covered in acid.

Danny repeated the action, but Vlad dodged again.

 _'I'm not fast enough.'_

Since Vlad was in his ghost form, which allowed him to fly, he had the advantage when it came to dodging. Danny would have turned back to even the playing field, if he had any idea how to use magic as a ghost.

Danny pushed himself to dodge in time as Vlad fired a pinkish red spell at him. A stunner?

 _'Would a ghost stunner even work on a human?'_

Danny decided quickly that he didn't care to find out, and continued to dodge.

 _'I need to get out of here.'_

That was easier said than done, since Vlad was between him and the Veil.

Another pink blast came towards him, and Danny didn't manage to dodge in time. He crashed into the benches, knocking one of them over. It burned, and the force of it pushed him further away from the Veil, but he didn't fall unconscious.

 _'So it's not a stunner. It's that weird ghost fire.'_

Danny smirked grimly as he got to his feet.

Vlad frowned as he saw the expression, obviously not sure what to make of it.

 _'Two can play that game. And you need to take a chill-pill.'_

Danny shot a blast of ice at Vlad. The lack of a warning in the form of an incantation meant that Vlad was too slow to dodge. Vlad cried out in pain as the ice graced his shoulder, and grew to cover it.

He rolled his shoulders, a scowl on his face, and the ice broke off in large chunks.

 _'So he can't just phase through it, then? Good to know.'_

Danny nearly slipped as he dodged Vlad's counter-attack, the rubber soles of his old sneakers weren't good enough to provide any grip.

 _'Now there's a plan.'_

Danny shot another volley of cold. However, now Vlad knew to expect the non-verbal attack, and it missed.

Vlad returned fire, and Danny had to crouch behind the nearest bench to avoid getting set aflame.

The more deathly version of the Death Chamber was beginning to look less and less like it's real world counterpart.

Danny shot a few more blasts of ice, neither of them hitting Vlad.

Since he was flying, the ghostlier half-ghost hardly noticed how the floor around him was covered in ice.

However, Danny was in human form. He needed to be on guard for the effects of his own attack.

Still, there were advantages to being human, at least in the Realms. He could just through the benches whenever he wanted to, using them as convenient shields. Or he could chose to _not_ be intangible to ghostly things, like he normally wasn't, and use the benches for leverage to gain speed enough to dodge Vlad's attacks.

 _'I could just escape through the outer wall.'_

Except that wouldn't do him any good. There were only two exists from the Realms, and Vlad was sure to have a bunch of wards set to restrain Danny by his Veil.

Going out through the Ministry's Veil was nearly equally difficult. While the fight had forced Vlad away from the thing, he was obviously aware of the distance. If Danny tried to run, Vlad would be able to catch up with him before he got to the Veil. Conversely, if Danny turned into a ghost to fly through it, Vlad would notice what Danny was planning long before he managed to do anything.

Danny ducked down behind a bench, and shot more ice towards Vlad.

"Impressive," Vlad looked at the evidence of ghostly power around him. "Unless, of course, if you were aiming for me."

 _'I'll need to distract him...'_

"You know, for a while there I actually trusted you." Danny said the words as casually as he could, with just a hint of anger. The goal was to distract Vlad from what Danny was doing, not to get caught up in his own emotions and distract himself.

Vlad paused momentarily, which allowed Danny to throw more ice blasts his way. All were dodged, and one wasn't even close to hitting Vlad, but he'd expected that.

"I won't be making that mistake again."

Vlad looked like he has about to respond, but Danny didn't stop to listen. Instead, he pushed himself away from the bench and broke into a run.

He wasn't fast enough, and one of Vlad's pink attacks came towards him. Rather than try to jump to the side, Danny let himself slip on the ice he had created. With his old sneakers, it was easy. His momentum carried him forward, while the spell shot harmlessly over his head.

The icy spots had grown into each other, creating a road of sorts which carried Danny all the way to the Veil.

After all, he _hadn't_ been aiming for Vlad.

He stumbled slightly as the ice ended and he was forced to get to his feet, but it hardly mattered. Vlad was too far away to stop him. Danny gave him one last glare, trying to convey the full extent of his anger at the betrayal and trickery, before jumping through the fluttering fabric.

The yellow and black blast doors closed behind Danny, keeping anyone from following him.

He paused to breathe, slumping over and putting his hands to his knees, before he noticed he wasn't alone.

Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and one other he knew vaguely from DA, stared from the Veil to Danny with unconcealed curiosity.

* * *

 **AN:** Even in my earliest draft of this fic (you know, the slice-of-life thing where nobody suffered and everyone was happy), Vlad was still the one who got the Fentons exiled. However, it never became relevant. Danny never found out, and he didn't even think about it all that much. It was just a thing I knew about the backstory, not something that tied into the plot.


	31. The Battle of the Ministry

**The Battle of the Ministry**

Harry walked closer to the ancient archway. The complete stillness of the room around them was mismatched by the fluttering of the old fabric the hung between the stones. There were whisperers coming from it, loud enough that he knew he wasn't imagining them, but impossible to make out the words of.

Harry raised a hesitant hand towards the fabric. If he could just brush it aside he'd be able to hear them.

He, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna had come to the Ministry of Magic to save Sirius, after Harry had a vision during his History of Magic exam, but that seemed so distant now.

Hermione was saying something. However, it didn't register in Harry's mind.

Harry took a step closer to the Veil.

And was promptly pushed to the floor, as someone stepped _out_ of the archway.

"Danny!?" Ron's disbelief echoed through the stone room.

Danny's hair was floating in a non-existent breeze, in perfect harmony with the black fabric behind him. He appeared to be illuminated in green from behind, even though there was no green source of light in the folds of the Veil. His eyes flashed, shining in the same peculiar colour. Harry blinked, and a metal door closed over the Veil and it was like it never had happened. Even the whispers coming from the archway seemed muted, the room warmer.

Harry got to his feet, unsure of what to make of the situation.

Meanwhile, Danny put his hands to his knees and breathed heavily. He seemed exhausted, physically and mentally. It took him a few seconds to look up, and notice them. His eyes widened in surprise.

"...Hi?" Danny was obviously nervous, and he couldn't seem to stand still. "You realise that this is a restricted area? You're not supposed to be here."

" _You're_ here," protested Ron.

"That's... completely different. Everyone knows I'm here." Danny squirmed, not meeting anyone's eyes. He was obviously lying. "I'm an unpaid intern."

"What is that thing?" Harry gestured towards the archway.

"Ah... Erm... _That..._ None of your business. It's strictly confidential. Unspeakable even... Why are you here again?"

Harry blinked as he remembered, they didn't have _time_ to stand around talking about weird magical archways. They could question Danny when they'd returned to Hogwarts. "Voldemort has Sirius in a room filled with glass spheres-"

With a fluidity that surprised Harry, the demeanour of a clumsy and insecure Hufflepuff changed into alertness. "Got it. I know where it is."

Danny lead them out into the circular room they had come from.

"The secret to getting anywhere here is to ask for it. The Hall of Prophecy, please."

The room spun around and the door in front of them opened.

"I'm not sure being polite is necessary, but since I suspect this place is alive..." Danny shrugged, again the image of an awkward Hufflepuff. "There have been interns who've just... gone missing, and I think it's because the Department didn't like them. So try to be likeable."

Five out of the six gave him odd looks, but Luna smiled and nodded with understanding.

* * *

Danny led the group into the Hall of Prophecy, but soon Harry took point.

The room was eerily quiet, and their footsteps echoed between the shelves.

"What _are_ all these?" Ron was looking around with wide eyes. His voice was a whisper, as if he didn't want to disturb the reverent atmosphere of the hall. Or maybe he was just being cautious about the people who had kidnapped Mr. Black.

"Prophecies, of course." Danny shrugged, not nearly as impressed as his companions. "Don't touch them, they're charmed so not just anybody can come in and pick them up."

There was no sign of Mr. Black, no screams echoing through the room. Their hurried worry slowly melted away, and was replaced by confusion and distrust. Shouldn't they have found him by now?

"Harry, this one has your name on it." Ron was frowning at one of the spheres.

Harry stopped dead in his tracks, shock making him momentarily forget all about his godfather.

Danny approached the tiny glass sphere, careful to not touch it. "About you and Voldemort. I guess that makes sense, what with your whole Boy-Who-Lived thing."

"Can we listen to it?" Harry looked at Danny.

Danny frowned. His parents hadn't told him much about the prophecies on their little tour of the Department, other than to stay away from them. "Probably. I've never tried. Only the people the prophecies are about can touch them without security going haywire..."

Taking that as some sort of confirmation, Harry picked up the glass sphere.

Nothing happened.

Harry started to wipe away the thin layer of dust on top of the ball, to see it that made any difference.

A mocking voice sounded through the room. "Excellent, Potter. Now turn around, slowly, and give it to me."

Seven heads turned towards the sound.

The Death Eaters, in their customary robes and masks, appeared out of thin air around them.

 _'A trap! How could we not have noticed them before? Disillusionment?'_

Danny felt like swearing. He should have realised, when they couldn't find Mr. Black. It wasn't like he'd never walked into a trap before. That he was still tired from his fight with Vlad was a small comfort, and felt mostly like an excuse.

Danny completely ignored the conversations between the Death Eaters and Harry as he tried to come up with a way to escape.

He considered grabbing onto everyone and making them fall through the floor, but immediately discarded that idea. There weren't any floors below them, best case scenario they'd end up in the sewers. Worst case scenario he wouldn't be able to hold onto everyone and someone would become trapped in the ground and suffocate.

 _'Let's come up with a plan where people actually survive.'_

It seemed like Harry was way ahead of him, because he signalled for them to prepare themselves.

"Now!" At Harry's shout, everyone cast reducto at the surrounding shelves. Prophecies fell to the ground with great crashing noises, followed by many voices talking at once as every single shattered prophecy was read one last time.

In the confusion, they ran.

One of the Death Eaters tried to grab onto Ginny, but Danny took a hold of her hand and made them intangible for a moment. As chaotic as everything was, there was no way the man fully understood why he hadn't gotten her.

Danny halted a bit to cover the floor with ghostly ice, and then it was Ginny who was pulling him along. She was faster, more sure on her feet, than he was. However, he was the one who knew his way around. He shouted instructions at her whenever she was about to turn the wrong way.

Danny struggled to keep up as his hand slid out of Ginny's.

Soon, all seven of them emerged in the circular room.

"Where's the exit!?" Harry shouted the question and the room spun around. The door that stopped in front of them opened on its own, revealing the dark corridors outside of the Department of Mysteries.

"Thank you!" added Danny as they continued running. He didn't particularly enjoy the idea of the Department, if it actually was sentient, taking revenge on him later for being rude.

The narrow, straight corridors had never felt so claustrophobic. Danny almost wished they had stayed in the maze of rooms that was the Department of Mysteries. There was nothing to hide behind if the Death Eaters caught up with them in the hallways.

An explosion of light hitting the wall behind them confirmed Danny's fears. Ron and Luna responded in kind, but they didn't stop. Turning a corner was their best bet.

It was all a blur. Running. More running. Ducking their heads. Turning corners. Even more running.

Mercifully, they made it to the first floor, out the golden gates and to the giant fountain. However, they didn't make it all the way to the fireplaces. They were forced to duck behind the fountain, as the pursuing Death Eaters threw curses at them. They returned fire, so that the Death Eaters couldn't come any closer.

 _'I miss the good ol' flying fistfights of the Realms. None of this blast nonsense.'_

He was breathing heavily, which was also something he didn't have to deal with in the Realms.

 _'Well, if things here don't turn out great, I'll probably end up trapped there forever.'_

That wasn't actually comforting.

 _'I'm too young to die... Well, permanently, anyhow. I still need to talk to mom and dad.'_

Which meant he needed a plan.

The fireplaces in front of them burst into light.

 _'Crud! Reinforcements!'_

Danny reached over to the others, prepared to use his intangibility to pull them down one floor, when Mr. Moody stepped out of the fire.

The green flames of the Floo Network came to life in other fireplaces, and more members of the Order of the Phoenix joined the fight.

 _'Oh, reinforcements.'_

* * *

 **AN:** In the book they ended up fighting in the Death Chamber because they got lost in the maze that is the Department of Mysteries. With Danny around to shout directions, that didn't happen.

I thought I'd be able to fit all of the battle in this chapter. So many long fight scenes...


	32. The Opposite of Dying

**The** **Opposite of Dying**

The atrium at the entrance of the Ministry of Magic was in chaos.

With people willing to actually duel, rather simply than trying to escape, the fight turned into an all-out war. Mr. Moody was duelling three Death Eaters at once, while Mr. Black was fighting Bellatrix Lestrange.

Emboldened by the change in situation, Harry jumped in to help his godfather.

 _'And here I thought we'd take the chance to escape. Freaking Gryffindors.'_

Danny conveniently forgot how many times he himself had rushed into danger in the Realms.

At least the other Hogwarts students stayed behind the cover of the fountain as they cast their spells.

Danny shot a stunner at the closet Death Eater before ducking down again.

Their small group was joined by a woman in teal robes.

"Hi, Mom."

"Danny." She looked surprised for a moment, stunned by the simple fact that he had acknowledged her presence. She caught herself quickly, and turned towards the other students. "You kids need to leave."

"We can still fight!"

"I'm not leaving without Harry!"

While his mother tried to convince the others, Danny allowed himself a moment to be grateful his dad had decided to stay behind. Dangerous as the man was with wards, his aim wasn't suited for fighting.

"Mom."

Maddie Fenton abandoned her futile quest to get the children to leave the Ministry.

"There are anti-apparition wards over the entire Ministry, except right here. The Death Eaters won't expect an attack from behind."

Understanding flashed through her eyes. "You want to go under and around."

"Yeah. We're hidden here behind the fountain, they won't notice if we disappear." He held out his hand to her and pointedly ignored how the Hogwarts students would be perfectly capable of seeing him use the ghostly ability.

His Mom surveyed the situation before nodding and grasping Danny's offered hand.

They fell through the floor. Danny landed unsteadily, while his Mom showed a lot more grace. She took a few seconds to orient herself before setting a brisk pace towards the stairs.

"What are you even _doing_ here?" She looked like she wanted to glare at him, but didn't let herself since their relationship was still so strained.

"Ah... Erm... Well... I was talking to Vlad. In the Realms. He attacked me, and when I escaped I ran into Harry and the others."

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

"I'm fine. I got away. Can we talk about this when we're _not_ in a life-threatening situation?"

"So we'll talk later, then?" She gave him a wry, but still somehow hopeful, smile.

He found himself smiling back. "Yeah. We'll talk later."

After having spent so much time avoiding them, Danny wasn't looking forward to it. That didn't mean it didn't need to be done.

They arrived at the atrium in silence.

The plan worked, however briefly, and they were able to stun five Death Eaters before the others realised they'd been flanked.

Seeing as they had lost the advantage of surprise, they split up and jumped into the fray. Danny found himself joining Mr. Black and Harry.

Bellatrix Lestrange was savage, and intimidating. She duelled like she was born with a wand in her hand.

It took all of Danny's well honed dodging skills to not get hit with any of her curses.

He cast a ghostly ice blast, which she blocked with a normal shield. The ice wrapped around the shield, covering it. When the shield disappeared the ice remained, before it was blasted apart from within. Snow glittered in the air, reflecting the many coloured light of the spells that were cast, as the fight raged on.

Danny forced himself to ignore how exhausted he was, but his movements were losing their edge.

Of course, someone like Bellatrix Lestrange was able to smell weakness from a mile away. However, Mr. Black's assault meant she couldn't simply focus more attention on Danny to overwhelm him.

 _'We need a plan... Or a way to hold out long enough for Mr. Moody to save us. Hey, that's a plan!'_

Bellatrix seemed to realise the same thing, because the next words to pass her lips were "Avada Kedavra!"

The green light headed straight for Mr. Black. There was no time to think, Danny's body moved on its own. He pushed Mr. Black aside, and the killing curse clipped Danny's shoulder. It was a glancing hit, that from most angles probably looked like a miss, but to the killing curse that didn't matter.

The familiar feel of death approaching came too quickly to stop. It tasted like the Accident with the Veil, but so much faster and painlessly. It was almost like letting himself turn into a ghost, but without the accompanying lightness.

Danny was used to dying.

He was also used to coming back to life.

It was as easy as willing himself back to humanity from ghost form.

Danny blinked, and since nobody expected an attack from the dead guy, fired a stunner straight at Bellatrix.

It was pure reflect that she managed to put up a shield on time.

"Missed me," quipped Danny and stood up. His head was spinning, but that was probably more from exhaustion than from getting hit by a killing curse. Probably.

Harry was looking at him with wide eyes, that reflected too much light.

Mr. Black gave a short, barking laugh even as he fired off more hexes. "I thought you were a goner. I thought _I_ was a goner. Thanks, kid."

Danny smirked. "No prob, Mr. Black."

Mr. Black looked like he had bitten into something sour. "It's Sirius."

"Got ya."

The battle was all but won, with only a few Death Eaters aside from Bellatrix still standing, despite Mr. Moody and several other Order members having been knocked out, and the prophecy still in Harry's hand.

It was only natural that something would go wrong.

A shocked murmur went through the crowd as Voldemort himself stepped out of a fireplace. Bellatrix started laughing.

Her laughter died in her throat as yet another fireplace lit up in green. Professor Dumbledore had arrived.

Everyone backed away as the two wizards circled each other.

Bellatrix took the opportunity to escape, but Danny was too distracted and exhausted to try to stop her.

What followed was the most impressive use of magic Danny had ever seen. Dumbledore and Voldemort fought without restraint. Dumbledore brought the golden statues in the fountain to life to aid him, while Voldemort used Dark magic Danny had never even heard of.

The Dark Lord sent a bright green beam at the headmaster, but a phoenix swooped down and swallowed the killing curse. The bird exploded in fire and ash, from which a baby phoenix was reborn.

The fight went on for a while, with neither party willing to accept defeat.

However, before the match could be won, the Minister of Magic himself showed up, accompanied by Aurors.

Voldemort took one look at the politician who had so kindly pretended he didn't exist before deciding he had nothing to gain by prolonging the battle. He disapparated away with a large popping sound.

Sirius looked from the distracted Aurors to the Order before giving them a cheeky wave and apparating away.

Dumbledore approached Minister Fudge to explain the situation, and Danny truly felt his exhaustion catch up with him.

"I'm gonna go collapse somewhere now."

Harry hurried to catch Danny before he could fall to his knees. He slung Danny's arm over his shoulder, which helped keep Danny on his feet.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, sure." Harry gave a weak smile.

The other students ran over to them. Ginny was sporting a large gash on her forehead, while Neville was bleeding from the nose and Hermione was limping, but nobody seemed to be seriously injured.

"Everyone's okay?" Harry looked between his friends.

"We're fine." Ron shrugged.

Hermione gave Danny a _look._ "You're lucky you managed to dodge that killing curse."

"I didn't exactly stop to think things through," deadpanned Danny. "Oh, why am I explaining myself to you? You're not my Mom."

Somebody behind Danny cleared their throat.

"Hi Mom."

Harry turned them around and Danny gave his mother his best fake smile as she threw his other arm over her shoulder. Harry let them go and she pulled him aside.

"Sweetie, are you alright?" She looked him over with a critical eye, a frown on her face.

"I need to sleep for a week."

When she assured herself that he was, indeed, alright, her worried expression turned to scolding. "I can't believe how reckless you were! If that killing curse hadn't missed you..."

"Yeah. Missed me. He he."

Her eyes widened and she pulled him into a tight hug, as if to make sure he couldn't run off and die on her.

Danny blinked a couple of times, before letting himself melt into the embrace.

He hadn't forgiven her, but then and there he didn't need to.

It just felt nice to hug her back.

* * *

 **AN** : There is no killing off Sirius on my watch.

Next chapter is the last.


	33. Best Left Unspoken

**AN:** A short chapter, but since this is basically the epilogue I think it's fine this way.

* * *

 **Best Left Unspoken**

Harry sighed to himself.

After everything that happened, their return to Hogwarts was plagued by a truly ridiculous amount of rumours. Some people believed Harry had duelled Voldemort alone, while some claimed the Death Eaters had cursed them to turn to stone. Never mind that all seven of them were walking around, obviously not made of marble.

The atmosphere in the school was one of hushed whispers. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had returned, and everything was uncertain.

Contrary to that, Harry felt better than he had all year. Nobody thought he was lying anymore, Malfoy's father and several other Death Eaters had been arrested, the Ministry was finally taking action, and he wouldn't have any more detentions with Umbridge.

There was a grim sort of satisfaction to the entire situation.

He, Ron and Hermione were walking around the grounds, enjoying the fair weather. The sun shone down on the castle, warming them up ever so slightly. They talked about how they'd done on their exams, with Hermione fretting about mistranslating some runes. It felt nice, normal.

Despite the general atmosphere, there were plenty of people milling about the grounds. One of which was someone Harry had been wanting to talk to for a while.

"There's Danny."

Completely ignoring that it wasn't actually hot outside, Danny was laying in the shadows with his feet in the lake.

Harry had to blink a few times when he saw it, to make sure he wasn't imagining things. The lake was _deep_ , there was no way the water was anything but freezing.

"Oh, good. We can finally ask him about that ancient archway thing. I tried looking for it in the library, but I couldn't find anything." Hermione's eyes lit up with interest.

"Of course not." Ron snorted. "There's a _reason_ those who work at the Department of Mysteries are called Unspeakables. It's not like a _school library_ would have information about anything they do."

"I tried the Restricted Section."

Ron gave an exaggerated huff.

"Danny?" Harry called out when they'd gotten closer.

The Hufflepuff sat up and turned around, pulling his feet out of the water.

"Can we talk with you? Somewhere... private." Hermione wrung her hands together, and looked around the grounds.

"Sure." He shrugged. "It's too warm out here anyway."

"It's not that hot." Ron rolled his eyes.

Without missing a beat, Danny replied. "Maybe it's just me."

Everyone made a point of ignoring that comment.

Danny put on his socks and shoes, and followed the trio into the castle.

It didn't take them long to find an abandoned classroom.

The room was stuffy, but not warm enough to be bothersome. Harry blinked furiously as his eyes adjusted to the lack of natural light.

"So..." Danny leaned against a wall, almost cocky in his casualness. "What did you want?"

"That archway. In the Ministry. The one you came out of. What is it?" Harry leaned forward slightly as he talked.

Danny squirmed. "I'm not supposed to tell you. You know that."

"You told us about the weapon." Ron rolled his eyes. "Even though there was no weapon, in the end."

"That was different. That was to stop Voldemort. This is just about you guys being curious." Danny threw out his arms in frustration.

Harry couldn't deny that. Instead, he settled for trying to trick Danny into telling them more than he wanted to. "I could hear voices coming from it."

Danny gave him a measured look before nodding. "It does that."

"Why? What were they?"

"It's a... portal." He seemed to choose the word really carefully. "It's a portal to another dimension. You heard the people on the other side."

"That's amazing." Hermione's eyes lit up with curiosity once again. "What's it like in that dimension? I'd really like to see it."

"One day, maybe."

A foreboding chill went up Harry's spine. Something about Danny's comment made it sound a lot more ominous than it should have been.

"So, anyway." Danny pushed himself from the wall he had been leaning on. "If that was everything, I'll just go back to doing absolutely nothing."

Harry felt torn. On one hand, he wasn't absolutely sure of what he'd seen. On the other...

"I saw you." He kept his voice neutral.

"I can't to turn invisible, so that's only natural." Danny smirked.

Ron's mouth twitched, but Harry only scowled.

"You took a killing curse for Sirius." Harry couldn't decide between thanking Danny and demanding an explanation.

"Correction." Danny raised a single finger. "I pushed him away from a killing curse. It missed me too."

There was something flat about Danny's performance. He clearly wasn't cut out for a career in acting.

"I was right next to you. Everyone else might have been too far away, the light of the curse blocking their view... I wasn't even sure at first, that I'd really seen it... I thought it might have been a trick of the light..."

Danny looked like he'd bitten into something sour.

"That killing curse hit you, didn't it?"

"You're free to check my pulse if you want to." Danny smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Danny." Harry frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. He put as much authority as he could into his voice.

Danny was the one to break eye-contact. "Please don't tell anyone."

Hermione's eyes widened at the implied admission, while Ron's face paled.

"I mean... Harry, you of all people should realise the sort of attention I'd get for surviving a killing curse. I _really_ don't want that."

"Bu-but _how_?" Sputtered Hermione. Harry quietly echoed the sentiment.

"I'm not fully human." Danny stared at his feet.

"I knew it!" Ron smiled triumphantly. "Your dad's half-giant, isn't he? I mean, he's basically a beardless Hagrid..."

"Dad's a muggleborn."

Ron deflated. "But he's so tall."

"Oh, honestly, Ronald. Some people are just tall." Hermione huffed.

"Please keep this secret," pleaded Danny.

The trio shared meaningful looks before nodding.

"So you _knew_ you'd survive when you pushed Sirius aside?" Hermione tilted her head in thought.

"Nope."

"What do you mean, 'nope'?"

"I wasn't sure it would work." Danny shrugged, the casualness of it in sharp contrast to the serious subject. "I didn't exactly have time to think things through... Mainly I was hoping neither one of us would get hit."

"You weren't _sure?_ " Hermione crossed her arms, managing a striking impression of Mrs. Weasley. "I guess Harry isn't the only one with a saving people thing."

Harry had to stop himself from flinching at that. His 'saving people thing' had nearly gotten Sirius killed.

"Anything that's meant to cause death and nothing else is... I can manage that." Danny looked out the window, his thoughts obviously miles away. "If it had been Reducto, rather than Avada Kedavra... Well, I guess I wouldn't be standing here today. I can't heal a severed head, now can I?"

Harry wanted to swear at him. "You can 'manage' death? How the he-"

"Sorry," Danny didn't sound sorry, the jerk "that's Unspeakable."

* * *

 **AN** : This was the last chapter. This fic is now complete!

Looking back at this fic, if I had to write it again there are plenty of things I would do differently... but I'm still happy with what I've written.

I'd like to thank all my readers (but especially my reviewers) for staying with me through 33(!) chapters. You rock.


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